After fire, Miami-Dade commissioners reverse vote to keep incinerator in Doral

The fire that ripped through Miami-Dade County’s incinerator plant last month has helped reset the county’s plans for the future of the trash-burning facility, with commissioners on Tuesday voting to consider other sites for a new one.

Doral residents clad in white filled several rows of chairs in the chambers and waved their hands in support after Commissioner Juan Carlos Bermudez, the city’s former mayor, won unanimous support for his legislation.

READ MORE: The first time Miami-Dade commissioners voted on where to put a future trash plant

It reverses a prior commission’s vote to keep the county’s waste-to-energy operations in Doral once there’s a replacement for the now-shuttered 1982 plant. The privately run county facility caught fire on Feb. 12 and burned for three weeks, reviving longtime demands by neighbors that Miami-Dade get the trash plant out of Doral.

“I just hope that, after everything that has happened, you will respond to the residents,” Doral resident Gina Romero told commissioners before the vote. “The time is now.”

Ranghiv Acurero walked the lobby of the commissioner chambers with his 1-year-old son, Oliver, on his hip as the proceedings continued inside. Joined by his wife, Danielle Ramirez, he recounted a life disrupted in the early days of the fire. “The smoke was crazy,” he said.

Ramirez said the family moved out for about a week, staying with friends and at a hotel. “I was crying because my eyes were burning,” Ramirez said.

The Bermudez legislation rescinds a controversial vote taken in July that caught multiple commissioners by surprise and left Mayor Daniella Levine Cava considering a veto. At the time, Bermudez’s District 12 seat was held by Jose “Pepe” Diaz, who left in November due to term limits and is now running for mayor of Sweetwater.

The agenda at that July 19 meeting only called for commissioners to accept a report by Levine Cava recommending further study on future sites for a new waste-to-energy plant. But Diaz added a last-minute amendment to pick Doral as the future location, and the motion quickly passed without debate. Levine Cava said she opposed the decision but didn’t see enough support to sustain a veto at the time.

After Bermudez won the District 12 seat in the fall elections, he said he planned to revisit the Doral vote. The fire at the plant run by Covanta added momentum to the effort.

“This is a big decision for the county, not just for Doral,” said Bermudez, who lives less than a mile from the incinerator. “We should really take the time to make the right decision.”

His legislation requires a report from Levine Cava in 90 days with recommendations on where to put a new plant, a decision that’s been under study for years as the existing facility was planned for replacement with a modern building.

Oliver Gilbert, the commission’s chairman, secured a requirement that the report include cost estimates for replacement facilities so commissioners and the public are given a realistic look at the consequences of moving the county’s largest trash facility out of Doral. He cited a tendency for people to oppose something but not strongly enough to accept higher fees or taxes to fix it.

“In theory, they don’t like the thing,” Gilbert said. “But they don’t actually want to pay for what would be better.”

With the July report, Levine Cava recommended studying construction of a modern trash plant with far better odor controls than currently exist, and combining that facility with a recycling plant. Miami-Dade currently sends its recycling materials to a private plant in Broward County for processing.

Levine Cava recommended Miami-Dade consider the current Doral campus and a nearby site in Medley. On Tuesday, she said her administration would start fresh with recommendations in the report due in June.

“We’re looking at everything,” she said.

This story was originally published March 7, 2023 at 6:01 PM.