Dive Brief:
- Commissioners in Miami-Dade County, Florida, urged FCC Environmental Services and Florida Power & Light — the companies that led two rival bids to build a new waste campus anchored by an incinerator — to continue negotiating with the county mayor and discuss the possibility of a joint bid in a resolution approved Tuesday.
- The measure comes after Reworld exited the bid led by utility Florida Power & Light. Last month, county officials accused the company of mismanaging the former refuse-derived fuel facility leading up to a catastrophic fire that shut it down, which Reworld denies.
- The commissioners said at a Tuesday meeting they could select a bid and allow the county mayor to enter final negotiations at their next meeting on Jan. 16, nearly three years after the previous Reworld-operated facility burned.
Dive Insight:
The meeting was the latest milestone in negotiations between public officials and private industry over a new mass burn incinerator. Miami-Dade County began soliciting proposals for a waste campus that includes significant incineration capacity earlier this year, and the rival consortia offered competing visions.
The costs of the two proposals vary due to differing plans for facilities on the campus and an ongoing site selection process, though the Florida Power & Light proposal estimates a $105 per ton tipping fee that would increase 2.5% annually. Commissioners said more financial details on the proposals were needed to make a final decision.
The proposal led by FCC includes plans for an incinerator capable of processing 1.5 million tons of waste annually. It would also include a MRF, a C&D and bulk waste processing site and a composting site capable of processing 140,000 tons of organic waste per year.
The consortium also includes MasTec and Babcock & Wilcox. FCC CEO Dan Brazil highlighted the company’s experience in Florida during the meeting, noting the company serves 5 million residents via 13 collection contracts, two recycling facilities and — as of next year — two other mass burn facilities.
Florida Power & Light is a division of NextEra Energy. The company’s proposal includes a 1.3 million tons per year incinerator as well as an anaerobic digestion facility capable of processing 180,000 tons of organic waste annually. Kanadevia Inova is a project partner. The company also has a site selected for the campus in an industrial section of the county, while the FCC consortium is in negotiations at three sites.
Reworld was previously part of the latter consortium, but has since withdrawn from consideration. On Nov. 20, a county official sent a letter to Reworld requesting it pay $7.8 million related to the fire that shut down the RDF facility in Doral, the Miami Herald reported. The county accused Reworld of practices that were a fire risk in the facility.
In a statement, Reworld denied that it had operated improperly and accused the county of “trying to shift the blame and recover damages from us.” A company spokesperson said the letter was sent four business days before bids on the new facility was due, and alleged: “It seems to be designed to interfere with the process they created.”
In a memo summarizing the bids for the new facility prepared by the county mayor’s office, the designer and builder of Florida Power & Light’s proposed incinerator is “to be determined.”
At the county meeting Wednesday, board chair Anthony Rodriguez introduced a motion urging the two consortiums to discuss the possibility of collaborating on a bid. Executives from both teams said they’d be open to negotiations, and an executive from NextEra noted that the company had previously worked with contractor MasTec, which is a member of FCC’s consortium.
Commissioner Raquel Regalado, who has previously championed zero waste policies, also raised the possibility of building sewage sludge processing capabilities on the campus. She said managing the material is a major expense for the county, and could be addressed by the bidders in a final proposal.
County commissioners said they would hold an “industry day” prior to their next meeting to dive more deeply into the proposals. They also lifted restrictions on discussing the bids with the companies to gain a better understanding of the proposals. County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said she would continue negotiating with the companies as well, and noted that she would be bringing up zero waste policies in those conversations.
