Miami-Dade solid waste commissioner resigns

Miami-Dade County Solid Waste Commissioner Michael Fernandez has resigned several months after a fire at the county’s waste-to-energy facility operated by Covanta, Morristown, New Jersey.

His July 3 letter of resignation—posted online by the Miami Herald—lists many of the Miami-Dade Solid Waste Department’s accomplishments over the years. But it also discusses some of the challenges the department faces. 

“It is with a heavy heart that I submit my resignation,” Fernandez writes to Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava in the letter. “The last 15 years at Miami-Dade County have been the most rewarding professional experience of my life.”

However, several initiatives proposed by the department to improve operations have not been approved by the county commissioners, and the February fire at the county’s Doral, Florida, waste-to-energy (WTE) plant has exacerbated the county’s situation. 

RELATED: Florida city weighs options after Covanta facility fire | Covanta facility fire lingers in Florida

The Solid Waste Master Plan, which he says was presented to the mayor in March 2022, includes plans to expand landfills and construct a new WTE facility. 

“As part of the Solid Waste Master Plan and to meet the county’s Comprehensive Development Master Plan (CDMP) that requires the county to have a minimum of five years of level of service (LOS) for solid waste disposal capacity, a landfill expansion at the North Dade Landfill was recommended and presented to you on February 10, 2021,” Fernandez writes in his resignation letter. “This landfill expansion project would provide the department with nearly $400M in revenues and 30 years of solid waste disposal capacity in the northern region of the county.” 

In the aftermath of the fire, Fernandez says the solid waste department developed a temporary plan to continue waste collection and disposal, but that solution will work only through the end of 2023.

“At this point, the county will have to issue a moratorium to stop all development in Miami-Dade County or initiate the plans that were suggested in the past that would increase disposal capacity, such as landfill expansions and a new WTE,” he writes, adding that the county ought to reopen the existing WTE facility to help expand the county’s capacity for disposal.

Levine Cava has appointed “Olga Espinosa-Anderson, Miami-Dade Public Works and Waste Management’s deputy director, as the department’s new interim director,” the WSVN Channel 7 News reports.

Miami-Dade County Chief Operating Officer Jimmy Morales says the mayor is working with public and private entities to update the plan, WSVN reports.

Fernandez says his last official day will be July 14.