The only crucial item missing Tuesday from the “who, what, where, when” discussion about a new waste-to-energy facility was the “where.” Miami-Dade County Commission Chairman Oliver G. Gilbert III vowed at the commission’s last full meeting two weeks ago that the “where” would be answered this week. It wasn’t. At Tuesday’s fretful and sometimes contentious meeting several commissioners made exactly the same statement: “This is a very difficult decision to make.” So, they didn’t. Instead, they voted for another deferral, this one 60 days, to their Dec. 6 meeting, promising more details about the sites, including how much Doral might be expected to pay to keep the facility out of town. Tuesday’s meeting began almost 10 minutes late, with Mr. Gilbert spending another 10 minutes warning the commission about how the meeting would be conducted. Commissioners recessed just before 2 p.m. for what Mr. Gilbert said would be no longer than 15 minutes for a closed session with the county attorney and select commissioners. Commissioners returned to their dais seat some 45 minutes later. As the full meeting opened, 95 people had signed up for what they learned would be one-minute shares at the microphone. The majority wore green, pro-Miramar T-shirts, all opposing a now-closed airport site close to the Broward County community. The audience also was laced with blue T-shirted speakers against rebuilding the new waste plant in Doral. Some 40 audience members eventually rose to speak, after Mr. Gilbert warned the audience about repeating an earlier speaker’s comments. More than 30 were adamantly opposed to the former Opa-Locka site because of its proximity to Miramar’s neighborhoods. Others spoke out for a site near Coconut Grove where “Old Smokey” treated county waste from the 1920s to the 1970s. It was shut down due to its harmful environmental and health impacts reported by the US Environmental Protection Agency. One commissioner contacted by Miami Today on Monday called the decision a “jump ball,” which, as a basketball metaphor, only requires two participants. It might get a little crowded with three, and now maybe four, players in center circle. While the commissioner didn’t name which two, the discussion mostly revolved around Opa-Locka and Medley sites, with a dash of Doral. Some were concerned about the expense of a proposed Medley location. But in a personally brokered deal by Chairman Gilbert, the owner of the Medley property, Lowell Dunn, offered to trade it for the Opa-Locka site where, it was later suggested, it could be used for rock mining. In an olive branch offered to Miramar residents, however, Mr. Gilbert specifically said if Opa-Locka wasn’t chosen, he wouldn’t allow other businesses, including a rock mine, to take over the property. Until last Tuesday, Miami Today has reported, the site for a new Miami-Dade Refuse Recovery Facility, a “waste-to-energy” campus, had been narrowed to three: rebuild the Doral facility, destroyed by fire, or build a new one either in Medley or at an Airport West Opa-Locka location. Miami-Dade’s waste management issues have been brought into sharper focus since a devastating fire some 18 months ago destroyed the Covanta Waste-to-Energy plant in Doral. Covering roughly 160 acres, it was one of the largest facilities of its kind in the United States. The county would like to replace it with a new, “largest-of-its-kind” treatment center to convert solid waste to energy. A plethora of proposals and reports have emerged since the February 2023 fire. Plans for a new facility, with increased capacity, in fact, preceded the fire. Just 10 days before the blaze, Miami Today published an article on the necessity of replacing the 40-year-old facility. A countywide search narrowed its location to three possible sites. That was until last week, when Commissioner Juan Carlos Bermudez hurled a fourth-site “hail Mary” to infrastructure committee members, urging them to consider his new proposal. A 267-page report released earlier this year doesn’t elevate any of the original threesome to the gold medal platform. It offers pros and cons for each, measuring them on a series of issues from cost to building time to distance from the airport. It leans toward one of the three but wants all taken to the next vetting test. Under full power, the Covanta plant processed nearly 3,000 tons of waste daily, generating up to 77 megawatts of power. The average US household uses about 10,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. At 100% efficiency, the site included a waste processing area, an energy generation unit and environmental control systems to manage emissions and other byproducts of the waste-to-energy process. The fire crippled the plant’s ability to do anything other than shred tires, a process expected to be outsourced within several months, according to Francisco Calderon, communications manager of the county’s Department of Solid Waste Management. Choosing to continue moving forward even while lacking a grasp of basic project details, the county in August signed a $65 million, 10-year contract to bring a $1.5 billion “state of the art” solid waste facility to somewhere in Miami-Dade. Commissioners voted unanimously to enter into a professional service agreement for architectural and engineering services with Atkins North America Inc., also known as AtkinsRealis USA Inc. The contract includes the company “serving as the county’s representative during the construction of the facility.” An official closure plan for the Doral site has been submitted for approval to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Mr. Calderon told Miami Today. The plan “includes details on the buildings that will be demolished and the procedure and testing (soil sampling and testing below foundations to verify the facility meets clean soil criteria) prior to demolishing the buildings,” Mr. Calderon said. “We will not perform any construction activities without first securing all necessary permits.” Despite initial efforts to manage the aftermath of the recovery facility fire, including debris removal and air quality monitoring, the county has yet to lay out a formal plan to address the facility’s future, leaving residents and local officials frustrated and concerned about the ongoing impact on the community. The fire took almost three weeks to extinguish. It was spurred on by an assembly-line belt distributing bits of burning detritus throughout the plant. Medley is one of the sites being considered. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, however, favored the county-owned Opa-Locka site at Krome Avenue and US 27. The site is referred to as the former Opa-Locka West Airport. It “has the capacity to not only host the WTE facility but also provide space for other elements of the Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan, including … organic processing technologies … waste sorting and separation systems, wood recycling and mulching operations, and … other facilities to support diversion, repurposing, and recycling,” Mayor Levine Cava reported to commissioners in August 2023. The airport closed in 2006. The “former airport site, however, is less than two miles from the Broward County line, close to west Miramar. Miramar Mayor Wayne Messam held a press conference last month to speak against the airport site. “The administration recommends that while the Opa-Locka West Airport site will be submitted as the preferred choice,” Mayor Levine Cava’s report stated, “the existing site of the Doral facility and the Medley site should also be simultaneously submitted … as feasible alternatives.” Arcadis, a Miami design, engineering and consultancy firm, submitted a preliminary survey report in April. Here’s how Arcadis broke down the original three sites: ■All three are large enough, “suitable for development of a 4,000 or 5,000” tons per day waste-to-energy facility, and each has “additional acreage to accommodate colocation of additional ash monofill capacity or other county facilities in consideration of a future sustainable campus concept;” ■Doral and Opa-Locka have price advantages. The county already owns them. Arcadis estimates a new facility could be built at the former Covanta site for almost $1.5 billion. A Medley choice would require purchasing land, which Arcadis estimates in at $112.9 million. Total cost: $1.6 billion. County-owned Opa-Locka also has a total cost pegged at $1.6 billion. That was before the Medley property owner made the land swap officer. Extra expenses at the airport site, however, would “include additional costs anticipated for land acquisition, on- and off-site utility facilities, floodplain, wetland, and wildlife mitigation, additional permitting efforts, and a new $45 million transfer station… Purchase of potable water and significant distance to haul ash for disposal will increase anticipated operational costs.” ■The current Doral site wins the completion time race by a long shot, coming in at seven years and nine months. Estimated project duration at Opa-Locka is nine years, three months and Medley, nine years, nine months. As for air quality, all three fall in the “it’s OK, except,” range, but all included the caveat, “Based on the results of preliminary air dispersion modeling, this site appears to be feasible but certain challenges were identified.” The Arcadis report states that the “the worst-case health risk level at all three sites is below the risk posed by simply walking down the street and inhaling car exhaust.” Commissioner Bermudez at an innovation and infrastructure committee meeting offered a fourth choice. He has been in opposition to rebuilding in Doral, where he lives and has twice served as mayor. The county, according to a report from Mayor Levine Cava, received an “unsolicited proposal from TAF Okeechobee Solutions LLC and West Dade Nurseries LLC outlining a land swap to redevelop and revitalize county-owned land along Northwest 58th Street between Northwest 87th and 97th avenues in exchange for land held by the developer that may accommodate a new WTE.” The new site is 65 acres just south of the Opa-Locka West site on Okeechobee Road, east of Highway 27, sandwiched between two cemeteries, the Caballero Rivero Woodland West cemetery and the Northwest 178th St. Muslim Cemetery of South Florida. The TAF proposal calls for the exchange of this location with the Doral Resources Recovery Facility, a 73-acre site that would become an industrial park and multi-family “garden-style” residences. “The development will be divided by 40 acres for an approved by Miami-Dade County Regional Soccer park, which is not part of the proposed exchange,” according to a TAF presentation. “The integration of these three uses – industrial, soccer and residential – will revitalize the area, providing significant benefits to both Miami-Dade County and the neighboring City of Doral.” Related Posts:County reverses decision to build new waste plant at…Doral mayor looks for way to keep out a new incineratorDebris blocks use of waste-to-energy plantDoral incinerator location might get a second lookMiami-Dade mayor ponders waste facility siteThe post Vow to pick solid waste plant site goes up in smoke appeared first on Miami Today.