Coral Springs, county residents may soon have to pay for the Broward County Commission’s inaction on landfill expansion
Coconut Creek, Florida – Residents of the county may soon have to pay for the Broward County Commission’s inaction on the proposal to expand the Monarch Hill Landfill, which is located just outside of Coconut Creek.
County officials and representatives of Waste Management, or WM, the owners of the dump, informed the nine-member board during last week’s commission meeting that further delays would result in more costs.
Attorney Andrew Meyers of Broward County stated, “Any more significant delay is going to have cost impacts.”
The commission agreed to postpone voting on WM’s proposal to extend the landfill by around 24 acres in a horizontal direction and 10 stories in a vertical direction until its meeting on February 25.
Since the corporation requested a change in the county’s zoning and land use laws to permit the expansion, the commission has continually delayed making a decision for years. About five years ago, the corporation submitted an application for the adjustments.
This time, the commission chose to hold off until it received feedback from experts assisting the Broward Solid Waste Authority in creating a solid waste master plan for the entire county. This month, the consultants should have a preliminary version of the strategy.
City officials in Coconut Creek have been strongly against any expansion and have maintained that the commission shouldn’t make a decision until the authority’s master plan is finished.
But that will be months away, and the 28 municipalities that comprise the authority will need even more time to ratify it. However, officials have stated that the utilization of landfill space will be part of the master plan.
Assistant County Administrator Kevin Kelleher stated, “The consultant working on the master plan has made it clear that we will always need landfill space.”
Kelleher informed the commission that the county’s waste transportation expenses would rise by $8.1 million annually, or $24.3 million over three years if Monarch Hill stopped collecting the garbage.
In a presentation to the commission, he detailed the probable additional $778,000 that Coral Springs single-family residents will pay yper ear.
Company representatives have stated on numerous occasions that if they are unable to expand the dump here, they will have to haul the county’s trash up to its landfill in Okeechobee.
The corporation claims that the pollution from more trucks on the road will harm the environment in addition to the cost of transportation.
According to Chris Carey, a WM spokesperson, the firm has agreed to several concessions with the county that will save roughly $124 million if it is successful in expanding.
In addition to the financial impact, company officials stated that in order to create room for more waste, they will need to begin the process of tearing down an energy plant on the property that uses the methane gas released by the landfill to generate enough electricity to power roughly 9,000 households.
“This process has been getting delayed, delayed, delayed,” Carey stated, adding that they have been delaying that as long as possible.
