EMERGENCY GENERATORS INSTEAD OF EQCB

Board of County Commissioners · 2026-07-21 · ordinance

This is a Miami-Dade County ordinance (File Number 261214) amending the County Code to allow administrative approval of emergency generators for healthcare facilities and food stores within wellfield protection areas, instead of requiring a public hearing before the Environmental Quality Control Board (EQCB). The ordinance was adopted on first reading on 7/21/2026 and set for a public hearing before the Recreation, Tourism, and Resiliency Committee on 9/9/2026. The scope is countywide. The ordinance amends Sections 24-5, 24-18, and 24-43 of the Code. It revises the definition of health care facilities, adds facilities with emergency generators within a wellfield protection area to the list of facilities requiring an operating permit, and allows fuels for emergency generators for health care facilities or food stores (required to maintain an alternate source of power pursuant to section 8B-17) within the basic wellfield protection area, subject to conditions including: property served by utility water and sanitary sewers; property located more than 30 days travel time from any utility potable water supply well; property not within the Northwest Wellfield protection area or West Wellfield Interim protection area; property within the Urban Development Boundary; fuels contained in an above-ground storage facility approved pursuant to section 24-15(5); secondary containment with double-walled tanks and piping; for food stores, fuel not exceeding 1,500 gallons per facility; for health care facilities, fuel volume not exceeding that required to comply with emergency power supply system requirements; a groundwater monitoring plan approved by the Director for tanks exposed to the environment; and an operating permit pursuant to section 24-18. The sponsor is Juan Carlos Bermudez. The requester is Regulatory and Economic Resources. The staff recommendation is approval. The ordinance is intended to streamline regulations and reduce permitting timeframes. A review of EQCB cases from 2020 to 2025 indicated approximately eight variances were granted related to emergency generators for healthcare facilities within wellfield protection areas. No public comment sentiment is stated in the document.