The Monarch Hill landfill in northern Broward will be allowed to grow taller to accommodate more trash, the county commissioner decided Tuesday – coming despite protests from residents of surrounding communities who opposed the plan.
By 5-3 votes, the Broward County Commissioner agreed to commence a permitting process to grow landfills in waste management.
Some commissioners in favor of the plan said the landfill is a facility that serves communities across the county, and there are decisions on whether it needs to happen in the end. Of the county’s trash, county commissioner Michael Wooden said “we need to go somewhere and people need to take a more reasonable view.”
In addition to Udin, the favorable voters were Beam Furr, Steve Geller, Nan Rich and Hazelle Rogers. The people who opposed the approval were Mark Bogen, Lamar Fisher and Alexandra Davis. Commissioner Robert McKinzie was absent.
Years of discussion
The landfill is located in Monarch Hill Renewable Energy Park, in the unintegrated portion of North Broward, adjacent to various cities. The landfill, whose western boundary is just off the Florida Turnpike, is located east of Coconut Creek. The landfill is located just south of parts of Deerfield Beach and north of parts of Pompano Beach.
Discussions about the future of landfills have been delayed and debated for years.
The landfill is currently 210 feet and is currently permitted to reach 225 feet. The landfill is constructed like a pyramid, where it is constructed as a slope. Currently, it is permitted to be wider on a 24-acre base (a land that was previously a waste-to-energy incinerator) and can peak at 325 feet.
Some residents have argued that it was a public health issue and that it would be delayed or rejected.
Peter Silverman of Deerfield Beach told the county commissioner he mistakenly thinks he is looking for residents throughout the county who selected them. “I know you think you are, but you are not,” he said. “This project is benefiting the benefits of waste management.”
Deerfield Beach Mayor Bill Gantz, who spoke at Tuesday’s public meeting, similarly told the commissioner that the move was a “profit ratio” for waste management.
“Your voters did not choose to pollute you water or pollute the air. Do the job you were voted on,” said Filippas Kraal of Coconut Creek.
Waste management says that because you need to put trash somewhere, you need extra space in your landfill. Waste management officials warned the county that six years of life could remain in the current landfill.
They also claimed that if the county rejected that request, it would mean that construction debris and bulk waste would be discharged into Okeechobee’s landfill.
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State Rep. Christine Hunschofsky of D-Parkland urged the committee to wait until the master plan from the Broward County solid waste authorities is complete.
The decision “impacts the people we serve for years and decades,” she said.
However, Commissioner Geller was opposed to delaying the matter even further. “We’re going to postpone this over and over again,” Geller said.
Geller caught the anger of residents when he said he would approve the waste management request because “we are a countywide committee.”
He called the issue “insoluble” issue.
“Maybe we might ship the trash into space,” he said, and met a big boo. “If you think you care about booing, you’re wrong,” he said.
“Let’s ship it to your district,” the audience man cried.
Meetings were sometimes controversial.
Ralph DeMeo, a counsel hired at Coconut Creek, pledged to lawsuits before the vote. “If we don’t get the relief we believe we are qualified, we will sue and we expect to win,” he told the commissioner.
Of what Waste Management provided to the county in exchange for approval, he has not taken household waste since October 2027 in favor of construction debris. It will spend $2.3 million on recycling education.
Waste management claims by cutting household waste from landfills, such as diapers and food, and will eliminate the smell that neighbors say will affect them.
Waste Management spokesperson Dawn McCormick said he would seek solid waste permits from the county to increase after Tuesday’s vote.
“As soon as we need to go higher, we can go higher,” she said.
However, more preparatory work is required, such as building a liner to prevent leaks of all kinds, to level along Wiles Road and fill 24 acres. That’s a few years from now, she said.
