‘Mount Trashmore’ Plans to Expand – Coconut Creek’s Landfill is About to Get Bigger

Monarch Hill Renewable Energy Park, a landfill in Coconut Creek, towers over the otherwise flat land of South Florida. The recognizable mound of garbage takes up about 500 acres in western Broward County and can be seen from as far as the highway, which thrusts into South Florida’s pop culture under the nickname, “Mount Trashmore.”

Residents of neighboring towns and counties already complain about the air quality, noise, smell and potential water pollution the landfill contributes to.

And Waste Management wants to expand it.

A new proposal by the Broward County Commission is seeking to increase the amount of usable land for the landfill. The Land Use Plan Amendment, a proposal from Waste Management (WM) will be discussed at the Broward County Commission's Public Hearings on Sept. 17 and Oct. 8. WM’s goal is for the former site of a waste-to-energy plant to become a part of usable landfill space as well as to increase the landfill's potential height to over 300 feet. Waste Management has already begun actively tearing down the plant in anticipation of the success of their proposal. The site will be fully flattened by the end of the year.

According to the Land Use Plan Amendment Document provided by Dawn McCormick, Director of Public Affairs at Waste Management Florida, the new space would account for about five percent of the total landfill size. It would keep the site operating for a projected six extra years with landfill space steadily depleting.

“Six thousand tons of garbage come through our doors every day,” McCormick said in an interview with MediaLab.

Repeated hurricane clean-up has also shortened the lifespan of the landfill, which collected more than half a million tons of storm debris from Hurricane Irma in 2017. An aspect of the plan is to keep usable landfill space in the event that hurricane debris is created in high volumes.

“The garbage has to go somewhere,” said Joe Gagny, an operations manager at the Monarch Hill site.

The proposal also recommends utilizing the vertical airspace of the site. The final projected height is 320 feet, and 100 feet taller than the current height. 

“With the expansion in height, you are looking at an additional six to eight years of life for the landfill,” McCormick said. “We want to utilize all the space available.”

All the additional height would make the landfill the third-highest point in Florida, and the highest point in South Florida by far. The landfill that is already visible from both the Florida Turnpike and I-95 will become an even greater eyesore of the area, critics say. 

Residents of neighboring Coconut Creek and Pompano have long been at odds with Waste Management over the smell and ever-increasing size of the landfill. Waste Management, Inc. has dealt with previous violations of air standards originating from complaints received, and many are still pending.  

In 2014, Waste Management settled a lawsuit over the smell’s impact on nearby residents. Each resident within two miles was given compensation, in the form of $500. 

The smell is also an issue close to commuters' hearts – and noses –  particularly those who depend on the Florida Turnpike to reach their jobs, as well as those who live nearby. Lucas Paez commutes from his home in Broward to college at Florida Atlantic University every weekday. 

“The odor reaches the car and if you have your windows open it hits out of nowhere, especially on windy days,” said Paez, a sophomore at FAU. The sulphuric odor he describes, mostly from drywall debris and akin to rotten eggs, wafts across the nearby highways. 

 The landfill also placed gas wells all around the surface of the landfill to suck methane from the decaying waste and thus prevent it from smelling as harshly. This methane is then used in an on-site gas-to-energy plant, which also has plans to be demolished, to create energy for the surrounding power grids.

The alternative to this expansion, which Waste Management opposes, is to transport much of Broward County’s waste north to the Okeechobee landfill. According to the proposed plan, this process would cost not only the taxpayers but also the environment, with trucks burning an additional projected 3.5 million gallons of diesel fuel. 

“It’s better for our own garbage to be put in our backyard,” said Shiraz Kashar, a manager at Waste Management’s Monarch Hill site. “Or it would have to be sent somewhere else.”

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