Eric Trump joins opposition to proposed Doral incinerator, report says
MIAMI - The growing battle over building a new trash incinerator in Doral is heating up – and now President-elect Donald Trump's son Eric is joining city leaders in pushing to stop it.
The incinerator went up in flames and burned for three weeks in February 2023.
Questions and debates on where it should be rebuilt have been ongoing and with the Miami-Dade County Commission voting to put it back at the site in Doral, pushing Mayor Christi Fraga to call the Trump team to put a stop to it.
"We had several conservations and I know that they immediately activated their lobbyists to get a hold of the county and start recommending that we look at alternative solutions which we've already been working on with the county," she told CBS News Miami.
Fraga said keeping the site in Doral is a waste of a billion-dollar investment due to the population increase in Doral, along with the health risks associated with keeping the incinerator so close to homes and schools.
"Every single one of the county's master plans always contemplated moving the plant – always," she said. "You look at the past 10 years, the master plan always called for that land to get to its lifespan and be moved."
Fraga has solutions, such as putting the train on a train to landfills in other states like Georgia or elsewhere in Florida or negotiating rates with other communities that have trash incinerators.
Fraga told CBS News Miami that she spoke with Eric Trump on Tuesday and the Trump Golf Club's management team to help get the incinerator out of the city. CBS News Miami has reached out to Eric Trump's team for comment but they were unavailable at the time of this report.
When asked about people saying that the incinerator is already here in Doral, so why move it, Fraga had this to say:
"I don't think that's a good argument to have," she said. "There are many counties and services that have been relocated because of population growth."
Other Doral residents agree with Fraga.
"It's not just the smell because the nasty smell can be fixed by an air freshener but it's not that simple," said resident Anthony Cabrera. "It's the fact that it's threatening lives – not just of people but of animals."
"I'm pretty sure that we can find a better place for that," added Jose Galliardo, another Doral resident. "It's very big – in Florida, there's a lot of space. It [doesn't] have to be here."
The commission is set to vote on Tuesday.
"I'm waiting for that written confirmation but verbally, they have told us it will be deferred for 90 days," Fraga said.
