Miami and Fort Pierce may be about 140 miles apart, but they are linked. By garbage.
Every day, Miami-Dade County sends 230 tons of its least savory export north on trains to a transfer station in Fort Pierce, where trucks take the trash to landfills.
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WATCH HERE“This is 20,000 flies,” said Edward Koch, showing us one of the fly traps hanging from a tree in his yard. “I was changing them every two days.”
Koch lives in a neighborhood a few hundred yards away from the railway yard. The locals say the flies are coming from the trash train, and it’s so bad, Koch says on some days, he can’t even go outside. I asked him if the fly population has increased since the garbage started arriving from Miami-Dade County.
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“Substantial increase, absolutely unbelievable, we’ve just been inundated with flies,” Koch said.
Veterinarian Dr. Ronald Lyman says the arrangement stinks for everyone in the neighborhood.
“When the wind comes from the west, it’s a very strong smell, but the human health concern is this is resulting in a proliferation of flies and rodents,” Lyman said. “I’ve been here since 1984, so I know the difference, and since this shipping started, it’s been tremendous.”
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So if the people who live near here are having so many problems linked to the garbage trains, you can bet city hall in Fort Pierce has heard all about it.
“My solution is simple, I don’t care what you do with your trash, just get it out of my city,” said city commissioner Mike Broderick. “We are gonna come up with a forceful response ‘cause simply shipping their stuff to our city for handling out of here is unacceptable, simply unacceptable.”
The Miami-Dade County Solid Waste Department says it had to find alternative trash solutions after a fire knocked out its garbage incinerator.
The county has a 30-year contract to keep the trash train rolling, but the solid waste department sent us a statement Thursday saying it is aware of the complaints from Fort Pierce residents, and that the Florida East Coast Railway is trying to move the transfer station operations further west to alleviate the issues.
