Miami Dade County
The History of environmental Enforcement
Miami-Dade County is located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. The county had a population of 2,701,767 as of the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Florida and the seventh-most populous county in the United States. It is Florida’s third largest county in terms of land area. Dade County was created on January 18, 1836, under the Territorial Act of the United States. The county was named after Major Francis L. Dade, a soldier killed in 1835 in the Second Seminole War, at what has since been named the Dade Battlefield.
In March 2004, DERM published Miami-Dade County SWP Guidance №1, in an effort to provide procedures to facilitate the beneficial reuse, as appropriate, of soils from construction sites, sites undergoing site rehabilitation, or other soil removal activities; and which would otherwise be disposed in landfills. DERM issued a revised Guidance in March 2023 to provide additional clarity and to streamline the process of applying for and obtaining a DERM soil reuse determination. This was done to guide more on environmental conservation tips in the county.
Due to increased cases of environmental conservation and, Miami-Dade County one of the Regulatory and Economic Resources Department set up Environmental Code Compliance aiming to ensure that environmental violations are corrected in the most expeditious manner possible in order to minimize the impact of the violation on the environment and the residents and visitors of Miami-Dade County.
However, the Environmental Quality Control Board hears petitions on code variances and appeals. The enforcement remedies that are available to obtain compliance, vary depending on the nature of the violation, the types of evidence obtained in documenting the violation, and the severity of the health and/or environmental threat posed by the violation and the intent to commit the violation.
To investigate your complaint, DERM will need an address or the most accurate location information possible. Photos and videos will also greatly help. Florida Statute 125.69 requires that a code inspector only proceed to investigate an anonymous complaint if the code inspector determines, based only on the information from the complaint, that the violation reported presents an imminent threat to the public health, safety or welfare or imminent destruction of habitat or sensitive resources. If a code inspector does not have enough information or determines that the information provided does not indicate an imminent threat, then the anonymous complaint will not be investigated.
In the early1990s, the DOJ announced the filings of civil environmental enforcement cases against 2 steelmakers and a metal manufacturer operating in the vicinity of the Grand Calmut River and Indiana Harbo.
After the implementation of these remedies in the county, the regulatory has taken a huge milestone to solve the cases to those violating the laws and regulation on the environment.
Different agencies in the county like the Law Enforcement has been up to task to make every individual in Miami-Dade County accountable for the conservation of the environment. Its identical from graph below that the body is up to the task to restore environmentally sensitive lands in Miami-Dade County.
The Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources through Environmentally Endangered Lands (EEL) Program manages over 27,000 acres of land all over the county, including critically imperiled pine rock lands.
