County and local elected officials heard from property owners who shared their frustrations about damages to their homes as well as to municipal buildings and infrastructure that they attribute to miners blasting for limestone.
“It’s not only our homes,” said Pamela Carrera, a real estate broker in Miami Lakes who is a member of the Palm Springs North Civic Association. “It’s people’s mental health. It’s traumatic on the children and on the animals.”
Five companies on the west side of the county mine limestone rock that is used in construction and to build roads.
Miguel Martinez, a resident who chairs the Blasting Advisory Board, said two of those firms -- White Rock Quarries and Cemex -- are blasting close to the legal limit. Residents hope the companies could lower blasting levels and still be able to operate their businesses.
Martinez said multiple attempts to meet with both companies have failed. Attempts to reach the companies for comment were not successful.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava was joined by Commissioner Sen. Rene Garcia, who represents District 13 communities in the northwest corner of the county; Doral Mayor Christi Fraga and Town of Miami Lakes Councilmembers Josh Dieguez; Marilyn Ruano; Ray Garcia and Tony Fernandez.
On June 21 at the Country Club of Miami, speakers from area communities described how their homes shake multiple times each day and the damage they say it brings.
“I have been very educated by tonight’s issues … thanks to this town hall, I am very alarmed,” Levine Cava said.
She said blasting is regulated by the state fire marshal, and though local representatives have no control over what is happening, she and Garcia both said they would try and get leaders in Tallahassee to address property owners’ concerns.
She pledged to “look at the issue of damage to public infrastructure, and whether there is any opportunity to take action about that.”
She also said she was going to look at restrictions to legal challenges, how the county can analyze the impacts of blasting and the recorded blast levels. She said she’d also speak with the mining companies.
Two bills to lower blasting levels introduced during the 2023 legislative session by Rep. Tom Fabricio, R-Miami Lakes, and Sen. Bryan Avila, R-Hialeah Gardens to try and lower the blasting levels died.
One resident described how he “had to replace my alarm system because the blasts were setting it off,” while another showed video to Levine Cava of her home shaking during a blast.
Residents spoke of tile damage and pools that had cracks and edges lifting from the ground.
“It has gotten worse in the last 10 years,” Arlene Weekes, a homeowner in The Moors community, told the packed room.
One resident asked why nothing could be done at the local level, if government infrastructure such as a school and canal wall were damaged, as Martinez said in his presentation.
Levine Cava said she planned to return in a few months with a plan.
Carrera said the meeting was the first of many she has attended where she left feeling that the politicians were sincere about trying to find a solution.
To report a blast to the state fire marshal’s office visit https://bit.ly/3NKp3Gx.