In a surprise vote, Miami-Dade commissioners pick Doral for next incinerator site

In a surprise move this week, Miami-Dade County commissioners bypassed the mayor’s request to keep studying where to put a new trash incinerator, voting to keep the plant in Doral.

Neighbors around the existing Doral incinerator and city leaders opposed keeping the trash-processing operation in the same location as Miami-Dade prepares to replace the 1982 electricity-producing plant that burns more than 800,000 tons of garbage a year — processing more than 40% of the county’s yearly trash supply.

READ MORE: Who wants a new $1 billion trash incinerator? Not Doral, where the old one stinks

A decision on the new plant’s location wasn’t scheduled for Tuesday’s commission meeting. The published agenda only called for commissioners to vote on accepting a consultant’s report that analyzed four potential sites for the incinerator plant but made no recommendation.

When the report came up for a vote, the commissioner representing Doral, Chairman Jose “Pepe” Diaz, made a motion to put a new incinerator in the same location as the current one. He said Miami-Dade could never find a feasible location without neighbor opposition for a new incinerator.

“I respect other people who don’t want it there,” Diaz said. “But if we open that can of worms ... then what happens to all of the other sites around Miami-Dade County where people just don’t want it in their backyards?”

Diaz’s last-minute motion, read by a county lawyer, passed unanimously without discussion from other commissioners.

Doral’s mayor, J.C. Bermudez, said he was surprised by commissioners taking the unannounced vote on the incinerator location.

“I am deeply disappointed in today’s vote,” said Bermudez, who is running to succeed term-limited Diaz as the county’s District 12 commissioner. “The residents of Doral and Miami-Dade County deserve a fair process, not a hurried decision on something so important.”

While Doral leaders don’t want the new incinerator, Medley Mayor Roberto Martell wrote the county May 2 with a look at where the facility could be built within town limits.

The current plant’s operator, Covanta, wants to build a new county-owned facility with modern technology to reduce odors and backups of garbage trucks that have brought complaints from residents in communities that have popped up around the once isolated location in Doral.

The report by Arcadis studied four locations. Two are outside the county’s Urban Development Boundary, which separates the Everglades from residential and commercial construction. The other two were the current location and a nearby spot in the town of Medley.

In a memo presenting the report, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava recommended the county research the Medley and Doral sites before making a final decision.

“My administration is also committed to engaging directly with residents on this critical topic, and we ask for the opportunity to conduct community outreach with respect to the potential sites as we move forward,” Levine Cava wrote.

Commissioners still have votes ahead of them before Miami-Dade would start building a new incinerator plant.

A February report said the project would cost more than $1 billion, and approving contracts with the private companies that would build and operate the facility requires a bidding contest, hearing and final vote.

The mayor has 10 days to veto the commission’s location decision, and she declined to rule out that possibility in an interview after the vote. “I’m going to be considering what I do next,” she said.

Doral residents against the new incinerator see a veto as their next best hope.

Ivette Gonzalez Petkovich, president of the Doral Community Coalition, said she was shocked by the unannounced vote and plans to reach out to commissioners to see if they would support a veto. She said she believes it was unfair to make this decision without listening to any Doral residents or spending more time reviewing the other options in the $250,000 Arcadis report.

“If that does not succeed, we need to do some digging for an administrative rule that allows this to be reconsidered,” said Petkovich, an attorney. “There’s no way a massive decision like this can be made without the decision makers being informed or without residents being considered.”

This story was originally published July 20, 2022 at 3:12 PM.