Miramar is a city of over 140,000 diverse residents. It is centrally located between Broward and Miami-Dade counties in the heart of South Florida. It is also less than an eighth of a mile from the proposed location of a new Miami-Dade County waste-burning incinerator.
Recently, Miami-Dade Mayor Danielle Levine Cava recommended the Opa-Locka West Airport as the prime location for a new mass waste-burning incinerator facility. This recommendation is inconsiderate and reprehensible, given that the incinerator has the potential to emit 4,000 tons per day of harmful emissions into the air and potentially surrounding the city’s drinking water supply.
In addition, the recommended site would be located a stone’s throw away from the Florida Everglades, risking harm to some of the state’s most precious wildlife and over 90 endangered species due to wind emissions.
Kerri-Ann Nesbeth, candidate for City of Miramar Commission Seat 4, speaks at the Miami-Dade County Commission meeting, voicing strong opposition to building a trash incinerator near the city.
This is not only an environmental battle but also a civil rights infraction. An incinerator outside the limits of Miramar poses a risk to the city’s diverse population. Miramar has over 45% Black/African American residents, over 35% Hispanic/Latino residents, and many other residents from diverse backgrounds. We’ve seen how similar instances of mandated infrastructures have led to property and urban decay.
Take, for example, the 1956 highway bill, where the expansion of I-95 destroyed over 80 acres of housing and property in Miami’s mostly black Overtown neighborhood, forcing residents into sections of the city that were already facing economic disparities. More notably, “Old Smokey,” built in 1926, left embers, soot, and ash over the neighborhood of West Grove. Members of the community are still reeling from the effects of the mass burn site with noted ailments like cancer and pulmonary disease. Incinerators are historically known to release harmful air pollutants, including nitrogen oxides, sulfur lead, mercury, dioxins, and furans, linked to cardiac disease and reproductive, developmental, and neurological problems.
Emissions from the proposed site also create financial risks for Miramar, as the city serves as headquarters for several small, medium, and large-sized businesses. A harmful incinerator may drive business away from these owners, and subsequently, owners could choose to relocate their companies, impacting revenue for the city, which is used to support numerous support programs for residents.
But there is a solution that brings common ground to all parties involved, one that moves the trash incinerator away from residents of Miramar and those in Miami-Dade and places it where the social and environmental effects can remain minimal. Lowell Dunn II, the CEO of D3 Energy, has invited the trash incinerator to be built on the site that has already been approved in Medley. He has even offered a sensible purchasing deal to the county, where the profits of the proposed deal would go to charitable efforts.
The residents of Miramar should not be impacted by the inefficient proposal of a trash incinerator in their backyard that emits toxic emissions, creating social, civil, and environmental injustice.
The Miami-Dade County Commission must make the right decision, mitigate the environmental and health concerns of Miramar residents, and those of surrounding cities, and find a new site or a better solution to their waste problem.
To sign up to attend the November 6 Miami-Dade County Commission meeting to make your voice heard and stay abreast of future updates, navigate to https://www.miramarfl.gov/2266/Mass-Burn-Facility.
