Miramar residents voiced their concerns at a town hall meeting Wednesday night as plans for a new incinerator possibly being built near the city’s border move forward.
The controversy stems from Miami-Dade County needing to build a new incinerator after its previous plant in Doral burned down last year.
The proposed sites include Medley, Opa-Locka West Airport, a site off West Okeechobee Road, or the Doral location.
Miramar residents say the West Airport site would be too close.
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“We are afraid of our lives, our health,” said Mayor Wayne Messam. “We are afraid of our drinking water supply, and we’re just baffled about even the consideration for such an environmentally sensitive site that is so close to thousands of homes.”
Another town hall was being held at the same time Wednesday in Doral where residents, who lived through last year’s fire, said they didn’t want it rebuilt there either.
County commissioners delayed the controversial vote til Nov. 6.
At a meeting on Sept. 17, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava recommended the West Airport location as the new site.
“We want to include alternatives,” Levine Cava said at last week’s meeting. “We want to include other methods to divert waste stream, more composting, more carbon capture, a whole range of modern approaches. We need a larger campus.”
