A & B Recycling and Recovery Vice President Oscar Aguilera claims that it is just another case of the county "picking on the little guy," that it is, "getting to the point where people move out of the county instead of dealing with this."

A huge trash heap including carpets and metal debris at the A & B facility.

Sean McCrackine, information officer for the Miami-Dade Environmental Resources Management (DERM) office of the director, saw the case differently.

A smoldering pile at the A & B site.

"All we know is they're operating illegally and dangerously and they have to be shut down," he said.

Whatever the case, as a consequence of the ongoing violations at the A & B facility, DERM is "referring the case to the county attorney's office for corrective action," according to Robert E. Johns, chief, waste regulation section for DERM.

A family of goats poses in front of several dozen discarded tires at the A & B site.

Commissioner Miriam Alonso played a big role in pushing DERM to move on the case, following up with them multiple times to make sure they were on top of the case.

Nancy Alvarez, who handles community outreach for the commissioner, said that they first heard about the problems at a West Dade Federation of Homeowners Associations (WDFHA) meeting.

"The problems were brought to our attention at a meeting of the West Dade Federation, " she said, "and so we called Jose Gonzalez at DERM to check on the situation. He told us that there had already been a number of violations at the facility and agreed to send out inspectors again where they found evidence of additional problems."

Alvarez explained, "The commissioner is very concerned about this sort of thing, and always emphasizes the importance of staying on top of situations like this, making sure to follow up with whatever department we've contacted, which in this case is DERM."

A & B Recycling and Recovery has been operating only partially certified by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) as a construction debris (CD) recycling facility and was never licensed by DERM. They still need to get a storm water permit from DEP to insure that wastewater runoff is being contained.

"We're trying to get a water permit from DEP, a class IV permit," Aguilera explained. "We don't need anything else."

Johns explained that a CD recycling facility breaks down the products that are the result of demolition for reuse.

"We're running out of space in our landfills," he said, "so you have to try and pull out and whatever you can--currently there are six locations in Miami-Dade that do this type of CD recycling work."

According to plans filed by A & B that were acquired by the Doral Tribune, the facility was to include an enclosed building with conveyer belts and a trash compactor to process the waste when it was first formed under the supervision of DEP.

However, as of the writing of this article, even though the company began the facility application process in 1995, and was certified on September 8, 1997, all the site currently contains is a vehicle repair facility, several trailers, a soil sifter, mounds of dirt, and numerous piles of trash.

Aguilera said that they are still, "going to try and build the site, but maybe not exactly as planned."

That might prove difficult; according to DERM, A & B has been either formally warned or actually.

cited for three different types of violations: illegal burning of waste, illegal dumping of materials, and the construction of an illegal road through adjacent wetland property.
Johns explained DERM's position on the site very simply, saying, "They (A & B) started out with a permit to build a recycling facility, which is a good thing. What they ended up with was an illegal dump, which is a bad thing."

Wetlands filled
The wetland violation was seemingly clear-cut, but Aguilera claimed that they had to build the road because of extenuating circumstances, and that the problem had since been corrected.

"The road was built during the big flood last year," Aguilera said, and that it was just, "50 to 60 feet of temporary road to add access to the property during that time, and then it was removed."

However, a recent visit to the site by DERM's Wetlands and Forest Resources Section seemed to contradict Aguilera's assertion that the road had been removed.

A memo from that department to DERM's Code Enforcement Section dated February 25, 2000 stated that, "no material has been removed from the road since my last inspection."

It further said that, "a portion of it appeared to be driveable, as we noted vehicular tracks leading from one side of the berm to the other."

Donna Gordon, chief, enforcement section for DERM, said, "On October 22 they (A & B) were found to be building an illegal road adjacent to the site through the wetlands. They were issued an "NOV" (Notice of Violation) immediately."

She further stated that the investigation of these violations was ongoing. 

Illegal burning alleged
According to DERM files, separate complaints were made about burning at the A & B site four times, on December 30, 1999, and on January 7, 14, and 21, 2000--all within a one month period.

The complaint filed on January 7 is particularly alarming, as the individual who reported it said that, "this AM smoke is all over the area," that, "the problem has been happening for over a month," and that, "flames have been seen during the night."

An "Air NOV" was issued to A & B on December 30, which McCrakine explained is essentially a formal warning; it wasn't until January 21 that A & B was actually ticketed for burning.

Gordon, said, "Formal action was taken on January 21; the ticket was closed out, they paid the $100 fine, they didn't appeal it, didn't contest it."

All three agreed that the effects of burning of this nature could be detrimental to both the environment and the surrounding population.

Johns explained, "Open burning, uncontrolled air emissions of unknown substances, could definitely have an adverse impact on the environment."

McCrackine added, "And it wasn't just vegetation being burned, but construction debris as well--who knows what was being released?"

Gordon concluded, "The odor and fumes released into the atmosphere in a situation like this can provoke a threat to human health and comfort."

Aguilera angrily rebutted the county's claims, saying that the problems were the result of people coming over and burning the "rebar", the reinforcement bars in the debris, for scrap.

"Someone called the fire department and they said to cover it with dirt, but what you have to do is spread it out to let it burn itself out," he said. "I wasn't there when this occurred, but when I got there it was done correctly and the fire was stopped."

As for how this could happen repeatedly, Aguilera said, "They started burning the rebar to salvage and just left it burning when we were cited, and then the fire flared up again."

A small pile of smoldering material, about five or six feet in circumference, was in evidence when the Tribune visited the site more than two months after the last reported burning, but Aguilera said that was, "not part of recycling. It was probably small pieces of wood or garbage, or maybe roots from the Malaleuca."

Regardless, Aguilera emphasized time and time again that whatever burning might have taken place was incidental compared to the air pollution that takes place in Doral daily.

"The ash, the residue on top of the cars, is from the airport," he said. "Planes and jets keep coming over Doral, and stuff keeps coming out of their engines--that was an issue even fifteen years ago. If any of the residue is taken to the lab, I guarantee its fuel or oil from the airplanes."

"The issue here is," he explained, "the problem here is, when you go into a situation like this with all the stuff coming out of the planes--for instance, at the gas station, go there and then see the ash, and look at all the planes flying overhead. Nobody wants to do anything about that."

Furthermore, he said, "When the wind is from the north, even the Montenay plant causes problems."

A dump or a recycling facility?
Despite the conflicts the two parties, DERM and A & B, have had over the dumping and the burning at the facility, the primary thrust of the case being forwarded to the county attorneys office centers around the dumping of solid waste at the site.

The first problems with the facility date back to November of 1997, when an inspector from the solid waste program, industrial waste section, observed that, "dumping of metal-- corrugated steel, beams, fencing, etc.--had taken place on the property."

During the aforementioned visit to the site, there was still evidence of that sort of waste; in fact, there was a substantial pile within 50 yards of the vehicle maintenance area.

But the metals deposits was just a part of the litany of items that were accepted by A & B and dumped at the site. Huge mounds of white goods (appliances like stoves, washers and dryers, and refrigerators), stacks of carpet (still in evidence at the site), and even a tall pile of computer monitors were discovered at one time or another during numerous inspections between November 1997 and now.

The computer monitors are particularly worrisome because, McCrackine said, "they contain heavy metals in the television tubes, which can leach into the soil. There's a great deal of concern about them, particularly since there is no groundwater containment at the facility."

Johns said, "All those things could have released into the soil and it could be seriously impacted, not to mention the groundwater. We don't know how serious it is--we'll have to wait until the site is cleaned up. Until then it's impossible to know the long-term implications. But I can tell you that problems like this don't go away quickly; the new owner would be able to clean up the site, but any groundwater contamination could affect the city. The stuff that drains off the site goes straight into the aquifer, one of our most important resources, and one we have to protect."

Aguilera took full responsibility for the waste at the site, saying that he had allowed all the material to be "stored" there.

He said, "We've never hid anything--all the stuff that's been put there, I allowed it. But people are dumping all the way down (NW) 64 Street."

Furthermore, Aguilera maintained that by storing the materials at the site he had actually done the community a favor.

He explained, "Last year, we had the two hurricanes, it was an emergency, and we had to pick up the containers, my own CD, and take it there because of the emergency. I took those dumpsters away, the debris, from the homes as a service to the community. We had mothers calling us begging us to take the dumpsters away, saying that they had kids there at their homes, and we had this site, and were able to do this service for them. But within three weeks we will get rid of all it--we gave our word to the state attorneys office."

As for the computers, Aguilera said, "we got rid of them--sent them to a class II landfill. They weren't broken; they were just sitting there for six or seven days. The guy that had that load didn't even know he had them. Those wouldn't cause any problems with the groundwater at our site--it's the leach from the Montenay site (the resource recovery plant and landfill adjacent to the A & B facility) that would cause any potential problems. If you compare the thousands of tons of ash at Montenay to one load of computers, that load was very minor."

The cause or a symptom?
The two sides, A & B and DERM, disagree strongly on the nature of the problems at the facility. On the one hand, Aguilera believes that there are problems with the area in general, problems rooted in the relative inaccessibility of the Montenay site. However, the officials at DERM maintain that A & B is an atypical facility, whose violations are indisputably unacceptable.

McCrackine said, "We give the person or company ample time to take corrective action before legal recourse."

Johns added, "For them to operate, they would have to cease and desist operations, clean up the site, and then start all over again."

Johns continued, "Sometimes people correct things right away, but for others it takes a little time to fix whatever problems they have--but you have to step up enforcement to bring them into compliance. In fact, we're currently discussing revoking the state permit as well."

Ideally, DERM would like A & B to sign a consent agreement, a written assurance of compliance (legally binding) which would set time frames for clean up and fines to be paid, but A & B has been unwilling so far to discuss that process.

But there are signs that the facility may be moving towards that scenario, the officials said.

Gordon explained, "They haven't accepted any new materials in the last three or four months--at least there's that."

McCrackine said, "We're not jumping for joy, but at least it's progress."

But Aguilera maintains that although the problems at the site will be remedied, it won't be in conjunction with DERM.

Aguilera said, "We're not going to sit down with DERM, but we will continue cleaning up until we make things right."

Aguilera said the illegal dumping in the Doral area (which is rampant) is more a function of the lack of facilities in the area.

He said, "They're spending all this money on making sure people aren't dumping, when instead they should be building more substations. They spend money suing me, and on all those trucks and cars and people looking around, when they could be building more places where people can take the waste."

He accurately pointed out that the only substation accessible to most people in Doral is miles south near FIU.

"Because they don't take certain stuff at Montenay, and because you need like a million dollars insurance to do it even if you have the right stuff, people still need to dump, even if you aren't a big company. That's why you see all the trash on the side of the road--they dump it on anybody's land, at night, without permission."

And then, he said, "they spend all that time and money re-collecting the garbage and the tires; why can't they open a small service station, a transfer station? I guarantee people would go there and take their stuff there--would you want to go 20 miles from here to drop off a load of garbage?.