MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. — An illegal trailer park in the Redlands is possibly dumping human waste right into our groundwater.
West of Krome Avenue, near the Everglades, the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office Environmental Crimes Unit mobilized, serving a search warrant on a five-acre property turned into an illegal trailer park for various tenants who pay $800 a month to live there.
“What they’re being accused of is discharging sewage into the ground, which, in turn is contaminating the groundwater and contributing to a basically outbreak of E Coli in our groundwater and aquifer system out west in the Redlands,” said Sgt. Christopher Garcia with MDSO Environmental Crimes Unit.
Covered by a lush tree canopy and wild native landscape, it’s a shantytown in the middle of a natural paradise.
“Now it’s just being turned into a toxic landfill, between the sewage, the garbage,” said Garcia.
There are 26 structures on the property, from trailers to containers to makeshift shacks. Some of them have plumbing pipes coming out of them, some of them don’t, and that is the problem. What happens to all that waste?
“We’re going to have our detectives walk the property, trace the pipes, see where they’re going,” said Garcia. “Are they just going into the ground? Is there an actual septic tank there, or is there a container?”
Either way, it’s not only illegal, but dangerous and toxic.
“Even if it’s going to into a septic tank, this area is not permitted for septic tanks,” said Garcia.
It’s too close to the everglades and sensitive wetlands.
The risk of septic breaches is much too high, especially when you have two, sometimes three family RVs connected to the same septic tank, which is rarely, if ever, maintained.
“Now it’s full, it’s going to start discharging and all that fecal matter and all of that urine goes into the ground,” said Garcia. “And with the rains that we get here, it pushes it further into the ground water, and pushes it straight into the aquifer that runs to Biscayne Bay.”
It is an urgent mission.
A science team from Miami-Dade’s Department of Environmental Resource Management, or DERM, goes right to work to find out just how polluted the site is.
“They’re going to sample the soil, sample the groundwater,” said Garcia. “They’re going to sample the well. They’re going to sample the finished water from the tap. They’re going to find out if, okay, the groundwater has got E-coli and fecal in it. Now, what’s the finish water like?”
A serious health concern not only effecting the property and the people who live there, but potentially impacting the rest of the county.
Authorities have seen this before and have shut down other unregulated trailer parks in the Redlands.
“Every well that we have tested in all these properties have come back with fecal matter and e-coli, and if that continues to happen unchecked, it’s going to continue to push east and the next thing you know, the entire county can be infected with E-coli, and the groundwater even up to Biscayne Bay,” said Garcia, who has been with the Environmental Crimes Unit for five years. “This is a crime. A lot of people, when we stopped them and arrested them, they sit there and go, ‘What do you mean I’m going to jail?’ It’s a crime to illegally dump.”
It’s not just sewage and dirty water but trash and litter. The plague of illegal dumping in Miami-Dade County is running rampant.
“It’s been constant,” said Garcia. “We’ll work some operations. We’ll start making some arrests, start making some arrests, start getting some headway, get it cleaned up. The problem will push.”
Over the years, Local 10 News has shown many examples of people mindlessly trashing our treasure.
Catching them all is like playing whack-a-mole.
“We’re constantly busy,” said Garcia. “This unit averages anywhere from 30 to 60 arrests a month. We’ve issued millions of fines.”
At the Redlands site, Garcia’s unit arrested 29-year-old Luis Bellido de Luna, the property manager, and 34-year-old Yoislan Mero-Grass, the assistant property manager.
Both were was charged with disregard for the environment and felony pollution.
The land owner has not been arrested, but faces $202,600 in fines, and must also pay to clean the mess up.
Garcia hopes crackdowns like this one send a strong message.
“Illegal dumping is a crime,” he said. “It’s not okay to just throw out trash at any spot you see fit. We got to take pride in where we live. And nobody wants to live in a community that’s basically strewn with trash all over the place. They want to live in a clean, safe community, which is what we’re striving to get.”
Depending on what kind and the amount of waste a polluter is caught dumping, they could be charged with a felony and face serious jail time, not to mention high fines and even have their vehicle impounded if they’re caught using the vehicle to illegally dump.
MDSO’s Environmental Crimes Unit says it’s serious about cracking down on polluters. They will find you and hold you accountable.
You can report Environmental Complaints to the Division of Environmental Resources Management (DERM) complaint desk at 305-372-6955 24 hours a day, 7 days a week or by emailing environmentalcomplaints@miamidade.gov.
You may also report environment complaints online.
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