By Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org
After months of delay, the Broward County Commission is set to finally decide Tuesday whether to allow Waste Management to grow the size of its bulging Monarch Hill landfill by another 10 stories. A related proposal would add nearly 25 acres to the dump’s horizontal footprint.
After months of fierce opposition from nearby Coconut Creek, the proposal now looks to be a done deal.
To win approval, Waste Management recently dangled several proposed benefits that include financial and environmental incentives for both the county and the fledgling entity with the unwieldy name, the Solid Waste Disposal and Recyclable Materials Processing Authority of Broward County – aka the Broward SWA.
At the same time, Waste Management appears to have sewn up a different set of financial and environmental incentives to get Coconut Creek to go along. The proposed agreement, to be voted on at a special city commission meeting on Monday, Nov. 11, would amend their existing 2015 agreement that addressed various concerns regarding Monarch Hill. It would extend the existing limit on the tonnage of certain kinds of waste that are allowed to be dumped at the landfill until the end of September 2027, but only take effect if the county passes the company’s proposals on Tuesday.
Waste Management also pledged to conduct a “comprehensive hydrogeological study” of water quality in the area, to include an updated groundwater monitoring plan. “If it is found that groundwater is impacted and evaluation monitoring is required by Broward County, then the impact should be delineated and monitored by [Waste Management].”
Should Waste Management “request” to pile trash higher than 325 feet, it would have to pay Coconut Creek a $10 million “application fee to be used as the City deems appropriate,” the amendment proposal says.
Another $10 million fee would come due should the company request to “increase the slope of the landfill beyond the currently permitted three to one (3:1) slope ration. And any further requests “to add additional land to the landfill beyond the currently existing Landfill site” would trigger yet another $10 million fee payment.
In the meantime, Waste Management must pony up more immediate cash to the city for “recycling and solid waste education, innovation” – $2.5 million over five years. The money won’t start flowing until and unless the county approves its deal with Waste Management and all required permits are obtained.
WASTE MANAGEMENT PROPOSALS
Deerfield Beach, which has long opposed expansion and is offering to bus unhappy residents to Tuesday’s county commission hearing, has no similar proposed agreement with Waste Management posted on its website.
The north Broward dump, already nearing its current height cap of 225 feet, is now anticipated to reach capacity in 2030. The proposed changes would extend that life another decade.
Waste Management lawyer Bill Laystrom offered the company’s proposals in an Oct. 16 letter to Broward Mayor Nan Rich and eight commissioners. In a nutshell, the company wants them to approve both a vertical and horizontal expansion of Monarch Hill.
The vertical expansion would boost the height of the dump to 325 feet. The horizontal expansion requires amending the county’s Land Use Plan to allow an adjacent 24.6 acres – once the site of a recently demolished waste-to-energy incinerator – to be incorporated into Monarch Hill.
Waste Management’s letter posits a “global solution to the disposal of construction and demolition debris and Class III waste (i.e. bulky waste, yard waste, etc.)” by pledging to:
- No longer accept municipal solid waste at Monarch Hill – which accounts for much of its unpleasant odor – after the expiration of its present disposal contract with Pompano Beach on Sept. 30, 2027. Such waste could only be accepted during a declared federal, state or county State of Emergency.
- Assume the cost to transport 35,000 tons per year of the county’s residential and commercial solid waste to alternate waste disposal sites until July 2, 2033.
- Pay a per ton “host fee” to the county for every ton of waste disposed of at Monarch Hill. For construction and demolition waste, $3.50 per ton. For municipal solid waste from Broward, or waste of any nature shipped to Monarch Hill from outside of Broward, Waste Management will pay $6 per ton. The host fee will be in effect for the life of the landfill.
- Waste Management will continue to provide the use of its transfer station network at no charge to the county and participating communities for the transfer of waste to the alternate disposal facility. The company estimated that the value of this service is between $2 million and $2.5 million.
- Waste Management will make an “in-kind contribution” to the Broward SWA’s recycling education program for 10 years, beginning with $500,000 in year one and decreasing gradually until a minimum contribution of $150,000 annually is reached for the duration.
- Waste Management’s new “a state-of-the-art” renewable energy recovery facility under construction at its landfill in Okeechobee, the alternate disposal facility, will capture methane gas generated by decomposing waste, purify it to pipeline gas quality, after which it will be pressurized and injected into a utility pipeline. The company “will then remove the gas from the utility pipelines at each of its hauling companies where it will be used to fuel refuse” garbage trucks “thus completing the recycling and circulatory loop.”
- If Broward chooses to “source separate and transport food waste and organics to the Okeechobee site in the future, Waste Management has agreed to restart the permitted composting facility at Okeechobee landfill and compost…at no incremental cost to the then current disposal rates.”
- At the county’s request, the company will hike its capacity commitment at the alternate disposal facility by 200,000 tons per year to 775,000 tons. And should the county decide to install a wastewater sludge dryer near Monarch Hill, it will agree to work cooperatively to deliver methane gas generated at Monarch Hill to the dryer facility as renewable energy.
To date, the nine member county commission has gotten conflicting input about what to do. For example, in August following a public hearing, the county’s Resilient Environment Department Local Planning Agency determined the proposed height increase at Monarch Hill was inconsistent with Broward’s Comprehensive Plan. But in an Oct. 17 memorandum to the commission, the county’s Urban Planning Division concluded the opposite.
LOBBYING AND CAMPAIGN CASH
How will things play out at Tuesday’s public hearing? Commissioner Mark Bogen, whose district includes Coconut Creek, previously told Florida Bulldog he’ll vote no. Commissioner Beam Furr, who has said he was less interested in the height of the landfill than what’s going into it, seems likely to vote to approve it.
County records show that last week a team of Waste Management lobbyists, led by Fort Lauderdale attorney John Milledge, met individually with Commissioners Hazelle Rogers, Michael Udine and Lamar Fisher. They also met with Mayor Rich’s chief of staff Harrison Grandwilliams. Earlier in the year they met with Commissioners Rogers, Udine, Fisher and Robert McKinzie.
Waste Management and its lawyers and lobbyists have also shelled out generously to the political campaigns of commissioners.
- Mayor Nan Rich. Rich was the only commission member to face opposition. She received a total of $4,000 from Waste Management, the Okeechobee Landfill and two of Waste Management’s lobbyist, John Milledge, and lawyer William Laystrom.
- Commissioner Steve Geller. He collected a total of $6,000 from Waste Management, the Okeechobee Landfill and Milledge, Laystrom and Laystrom’s Fort Lauderdale firm, Doumar Allsworth Laystrom et al.
- Commissioner Michael Udine. Udine got a $1,000 check from lobbyist Milledge in May 2023.
- Commissioner Alexandra Davis. She collected $5,500 from Waste Management, the Okeechobee Landfill, Milledge, Laystrom and Laystrom’s law firm.
- Commissioner Hazelle Rogers. Rogers’ campaign received $1,000 checks from Waste Management, the Okeechobee Landfill, Milledge and Laystrom.
What’s the thinking at the Broward SWA, the new non-taxing body that’s initially being funded by its 28 members, which include the county and every city except Pompano Beach, Hallandale Beach and Pembroke Pines? Through a spokeswoman, Broward SWA Executive Director Todd Storti – formerly a Waste Management area manager in Oakland, CA – said Friday, “The Authority heard presentations from both parties on this important issue and is continuing to monitor the situation. We remain focused on creating a 40-Year Solid Waste Master Plan aimed at improving and adapting the waste management strategies for Broward County.”
The 500-acre Monarch Hill site in unincorporated Broward is bounded on the north by Wiles Road, on the south by Sample Road, on the east by Powerline Road and on the west by Florida’s Turnpike. When it was opened in a sparsely populated area in 1965, Coconut Creek was still two years away from incorporation. Today, more than 57,000 people call Coconut Creek home.
The vote on the Monarch Hill expansion is to follow a public hearing that’s set to begin at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.
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