Closure plan coming for Doral solid waste plant

The next major step forward with Miami-Dade County’s waste disposal project, after a fire last February destroyed most of the Doral facility, is to, by March 15, submit a closure plan to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told Miami Today last week.

While the resource recovery facility 13 miles west of downtown Miami continues to shred tires, the mayor told Miami Today that her office expects, by May 24, to present an alternative shredding location to the county commission.

Last December the commission awarded a $65 million contract to AtkinsRealis, an infrastructure consultant. The Quebec, Canada-based company with a Miami office at 800 NW 62nd Ave. will advise the county on a new “mass burn waste-to-energy” (WTE) facility.

AtkinsRealis is expected to bring design plans to 30% completion when the county selects a site for the new plant, county Chief Operations Officer Jimmy Morales told the commission in December.

The county would then request proposals for a design, build and operate contract to finish the WTE facility.

Since that earlier project update to the commission in December, the mayor’s office has met with Covanta, the New Jersey-based company that operated the closed plant, “to discuss the scope of the decommissioning of the plant,” Mayor Levine Cava told commissioners in a January update.

Arcadis, the professional bond engineer for the county Department of Solid Waste Management (DSWM), is working on completing the closure plan.

“My administration,” Mayor Levine Cava told the commission, “also held some preliminary meetings with the City of Doral to discuss their financial contribution to the operation of the new WTE if the plant is not built in Doral.”

And in her December report, the mayor recommended that the WTE plant “not to be restored and reactivated at the current site.”

The mayor’s January update to the commission also noted that her office “met with the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida to address and discuss their concerns regarding building the WTE plant at the Airport West site.

“The Miccosukee Tribe requested that the county keep them informed as the project moves forward, as the tribe wants to create a good partnership and provide ongoing input into the county’s future plans,” the mayor’s report said.

According to the tribe’s website, www.miccosukee.com, it was originally part of the Creek Nation and then migrated to Florida before it became part of the United States.

During the Indian Wars of the 1800s, the site reports, most of the Miccosukee were removed to the West, but about 100 never surrendered and hid out in the Everglades.

“Present tribal members now number over 600,” the site notes, “and are direct descendants of those who eluded capture.”

The decommissioned Opa-Locka West Airport in the northwest corner of the county has been mentioned as the preferred location for a new waste treatment plant for Miami-Dade County.

This site includes 416 acres of county-owned land outside of the urban development boundary, a half mile from a residential area in neighboring Broward County.

The site was endorsed by Mayor Levine Cava. However, the permitting process and construction of the new site could take years, according to a report on wastedive.com.

The county commission doesn’t expect construction to begin on the new WTE plant until 2027 and projects it will be complete in 2033, a decade after the Doral-site fire.

The mayor’s office is now studying how to handle waste until a new plant enters operation. It is currently being sent to the Okeechobee Landfill near West Palm Beach, more than two hours north, as well as other landfills. The county also was exploring shipping waste to Georgia by train.

The county has continued to work with Covanta, the mayor’ report said, “to address clean-up costs related to damage caused” by the fire.

“Covanta continues to operate the tire processing facility, and we expect to discontinue these operations in the next few months and begin sending tires for processing to a local county vendor,” the mayor’s update said.

“We have approved four projects to be overseen by Covanta,” the report said, “including removing chemicals and cleaning the storage tanks, performing an asbestos abatement study, structural cleaning of the bottom ash system, and developing a cost estimate for the demolition of onsite structures.”

The county expects to deliver the closure plan to the FDEP by March 15. Its primary goal is to “ensure the site has been rehabilitated and does not pose a threat to humans or the environment,” Mayor Levine Cava said in her report.