A Miami-Dade trash incinerator needs a home. Miramar is spending six figures to keep it away

In 2008, Richard Ramcharitar and his wife moved to Dania Beach with idyllic visions of having a boat and living near the beach. What he didn’t know at the time was that his home was within a few miles of a Broward County trash incinerator. As time went on, Ramcharitar said he developed respiratory problems.

Ramcharitar, a wetlands consultant who founded the environmental advocacy group Broward Clean Air last year, is now battling plans for another incinerator that could possibly affect residents in southern Broward County. After Miami-Dade’s trash incinerator in Doral caught fire in February 2023, Miami-Dade has been exploring other sites, including one at the defunct Opa-locka Airport West near the county line.

The Doral incinerator processed half of Miami-Dade County’s trash and was equipped to burn 1 million tons of it per year.

The city of Miramar is now mounting a six-figure campaign against the Opa-locka West site and sending letters to various cities in Broward County urging them to oppose efforts to bring the incinerator to the decommissioned airport and contribute monetarily to the fight.

Miramar Mayor Wayne Messam has been a vocal opponent of the incinerator potentially coming to Opa-locka West, saying it could lead to health issues for his residents and others in south Broward County. In a June 14 letter to Broward County municipalities, including Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood, Messam wrote that building in that locale could also jeopardize animal species and destroy wetlands.

“This facility will further threaten the vast reserves of clean drinking water for urban communities throughout Southeast Florida,” he wrote.

To date, Miramar has invested over $300,000 to fight the move but expects additional costs as the city would need to hire experts to conduct and write assessments on the potential surface water, health, and ecological and air quality impacts of having an incinerator nearby. Messam also hasn’t ruled out potential litigation.

READ MORE: Where will the next Miami-Dade incinerator go? Consultant report rates sites

Miami-Dade County has proposed three sites where it could potentially build the next incinerator: the former Opa-locka Airport West site, an industrial area in Medley and back in Doral. In April, the county released a study conducted by consulting firm Arcadis, which determined the Airport West location had the lowest potential risk. Overall, the study found that each of the locations had a low risk and did not present a risk to surrounding communities.

For now, the county has been holding public meetings and is expected to announce its plans for a new site for an incinerator, also called a waste-to-energy facility, in September.

“The decision about where to place a new Waste-to-Energy facility is an important one that will help shape the future of our community,” a spokeswoman with the Miami-Dade County mayor’s office wrote in an email to Herald. “That’s why the administration is making sure to approach this process as methodically as possible — with the opportunity for thorough evaluation of all possible sites, information-sharing and input from key stakeholders across the community.“

Marilyn Lynch, executive director of the Waste-To-Energy Association, said in a statement that there is no health risk caused by the facilities, citing the county’s study with Arcadis. WTE represents waste-to-energy companies, including Covanta, which was the contractor for the incinerator site in Doral.

“There is no health risk from WTE facilities,” Lynch wrote in an email. “In fact, a study conducted by Miami-Dade found that ‘the worst-case health risk at all three sites is below the risk posed by simply walking down the street and inhaling car exhaust.’ This follows dozens of scientific studies conducted by regulators and third parties around the world.”

Instead of moving the incinerator to Opa-locka West, Messam is encouraging the county to use the proposed Medley site, noting it’s already zoned in an industrial area and would be of minimal impact to residents.

“There is not one commissioner that would invite this facility to be built in their district. It wouldn’t be built in Pinecrest. It wouldn’t be built in Sunny Isles, Bal Harbour, Coral Gables, Miami Beach, Key Biscayne, Surfside,” he told the Herald. “So if there’s this claim that these facilities are state of the art and they’re so safe, they’re not proposing them in those communities. … Because of the location of the Opa Locka West site, any failure would be unforgivable if it were to impact the Everglades and our water supply. So why place it here?”

In the June 14 letter, Messam asked Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis to contribute $100,000 of the city’s funds to Miramar’s efforts, which could include a lawsuit if Opa-locka Airport West is chosen as the site. An community outreach director to the Fort Lauderdale mayor said Trantalis has recommended that the information sent by Messam be reviewed by the public works department first and then discussed at an upcoming commission meeting for further consideration and response.

Messam said Southwest Ranches, Weston, Pembroke Pines and Cooper City have all signed a resolution opposing the Opa-locka Airport West site, but no cities have committed funding to the fight as of yet. Miramar has requested between $30,000 and $100,000 from other municipalities, taking into consideration the sizes of the cities.

Ramcharitar, the Broward Clean Air founder, said he moved to Southwest Ranches in part to get away from the old Broward incinerator near his Dania Beach home. Many homes in his new town use well water, something he worries could be affected by a new incinerator. Ramcharitar said he also feared the incinerator could lead to a decrease in property values in the area.

“This will force most of the residents living there out of their properties,” he said.

Messam said his fervent response is driven in part by the recent report from Miami-Dade County involving the site recommendations, which he said ignored Broward County residents by insinuating no one lived near the Opa-locka Airport West.

Still, he said he hopes the two counties can work together to resolve the issue.

“We need to look at this perhaps as a regional approach,” he said. “There is no reason why Miami-Dade County and Broward County cannot work together to see how we can come up with a solution regionally, perhaps to select an appropriate site that could be able to use many forms of disposal. Incineration is not the only way to dispose of trash.”