Landowners file suit to stop $2 billion sewage treatment plant on western edge of Miami-Dade

Homestead, FL (Credit: Google Maps)

A proposed $2.1 billion new sewage treatment plant in western Miami-Dade is facing backlash.

MDXQ, whose principals are tied to Kelly Tractor Co., has filed a lawsuit in Miami-Dade Circuit Court to try to block the construction of the county’s planned facility, according to the Miami Herald.

Plans for the plant, which would rise near the end of the Dolphin Expressway, on the western edge of the county, have been in the works for almost a decade.

MDXQ purchased about 250 acres near the proposed plant site in the early 1990s. In May, Miami-Dade notified MDXQ that the county needed 140 acres of its land for the West District plant, according to the Herald.

Once the urban development boundary shifts west, MDXQ’s land, which lies next to one of the most popular commuting routes in Miami-Dade, will be zoned to allow for residential construction.

Miami-Dade sees its wastewater plant as a step forward toward upgrading the county’s sewage system, which is under a state mandate to eliminate ocean “outfalls” of treated sewage by 2025, the Herald reported.

But environmentalists say the plant would be too close to underground aquifers that supply most of Miami-Dade’s drinking water, according to the Herald.

MDXQ noted in its lawsuit that the county’s own zoning rules don’t mix subdivisions with sewage facilities. “The Master Plan makes it clear that wastewater treatment plants are incompatible with residential uses,” MDXQ said in the suit.

Miami-Dade had no comment on the litigation. [Miami Herald] – Amanda Rabines

from The Real Deal Miami https://therealdeal.com/miami/2017/10/03/landowners-file-suit-to-stop-2-billion-sewage-treatment-plant-on-western-edge-of-miami-dade/