Garbage Wars: County, operator trade blame for blaze at Miami-Dade plant

Nearly three years after what Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava memorably called a “Super Bowl Sunday inferno of garbage,” the county and the former operator of the Covanta waste-to-energy plant that burned down in Doral are now locked in a full-blown blame game — with millions of dollars, a $2 billion replacement project, and the county’s trash future hanging in the balance.
On Feb. 12, 2023, the county’s 41-year-old Resources Recovery Facility went up in flames. Literally. The fire burned for nearly three weeks, took Miami-Dade Fire Rescue 18 days to fully extinguish, and shut down a facility that once processed nearly half of the county’s 2 million tons of trash each year.
Fast forward to November and the county, facing lawsuits from residents, has basically said, ‘This is on you,‘ to the operator. And everyone — from the bidders on a new facility to the commissioners who will discus this ad nauseam again next month — knows it’s not a coincidence that it was right before one of the deadlines for proposals.
In other words: They wanted the Covanta operators to be pressured out of the equation.
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In a Nov. 20 notice of default, Roy Coley, the county’s Chief Utilities and Regulatory Services Officer, accused Reworld (formerly Covanta) of more than 20 breaches of its operating agreement, laying the fire squarely at the company’s feet. Better late than never, right?
According to the county, the blaze was fueled — and allowed to spread — because of:

Poor housekeeping and combustible waste buildup
Fire suppression systems not fully operational
Failure to maintain conveyors and electrical systems
Failure to institute fire watches
General neglect at a facility everyone already knew was old

Coley, who came to the county as the water and sewer head from Miami Beach in 2021 and is now in charge of this mess, didn’t mince words in his letter, alleging the initial spark on a conveyor belt was allowed to smolder “without any action” by the operator. The result, he said, was catastrophic — and costly.
The county demanded $7.8 million from Reworld’s parent company to help cover alternative disposal costs, lost electricity revenue, and cleanup expenses.
Translation: Pay up.
Reworld’s response: No freaking way. They say the fire is absolutely not their fault any how dare the county even try this BS.
In a sharply worded response, five days after Coley’s missive, Vice President D. Scott Holkeboer fired back, rejecting the county’s allegations as “baseless” and accusing the Levine Cava administration of bad faith.
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According to Reworld, the county had long known the facility was at the end of its useful life and failed to make critical capital investments, including $4 million in fire protection upgrades flagged as necessary in 2022. That’s the year before the fire.
“The county’s current situation is entirely of its own making,” Holkeboer wrote.
Reworld also dropped a potential bombshell: the claim that Miami-Dade underinsured the facility, failed to name Reworld as an additional insured, and did not carry coverage for full replacement cost.
If true, that’s not chump change. That’s taxpayers potentially eating a billion-plus dollar replacement bill.
And Reworld didn’t stop there.
The company issued its own notice of county breaches, claiming $179 million in unpaid service fees, inventory losses, and post-fire support costs. This is no longer a disagreement. It’s a legal standoff with receipts.
Meanwhile, taxpayers and residents are the collateral damage. This is all happening in the midst of a new incinerator debate as Miami-Dade desperately tries to figure out how and where to build a modern replacement incinerator — a process that has already been politically radioactive.
Reworld was part of a consortium led by Florida Power & Light, competing against a rival team led by FCC Environmental Services of Madrid. The project could be worth up to $2 billion. But after the county’s default letter, Reworld says FPL quietly showed it the door. Hasta la vista, baby. Like it had the cooties.
FPL later confirmed it had swapped Reworld out for a Swiss-based operator, Kanadevia Inova.
Reworld isn’t subtle about what it thinks happened here.
Holkeboer accused the county of trying to torpedo Reworld’s future business prospects by sending the default notice just days before updated bids were due.
County officials deny that — saying it’s normal to fight with a vendor on one contract while working with them on another.
Sure. And cafecito is just coffee.
Read related: To keep a new Miami-Dade garbage incinerator away, get ready to pay
Complicating everything: Miami-Dade still doesn’t even know where the next incinerator would be built.
For years, the plan was to rebuild in Doral — until Donald Trump won the 2024 election and his son Eric publicly vowed to fight any incinerator near the Trump National Doral golf resort.
Doral was dropped. A county airport site was dropped after Miramar objected.
Now, trash is being hauled north by train and truck to landfills elsewhere in Florida, and commissioners have punted the siting question to the bidders themselves.
Those proposed locations are still confidential — but expected to surface soon. Wherever they land, expect protests.
So who’s telling the truth? Maybe both?
Fire investigators initially deemed the blaze accidental, possibly mechanical or electrical, without identifying a single ignition source. That leaves plenty of room for finger-pointing — and both sides are taking full advantage.
What’s clear is this:

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