Residents of northeast Miami-Dade County and southwest Broward live near a stone quarry and say that as the cracks widen with each mining explosion, the more their mental health deteriorates.
“This is a problem that has been around for a long time, it is nothing new,” says Maribel Balvin, one of the affected neighbors.
Miami Lakes residents say this is an emergency that can’t wait any longer.
“In all the walls, the floors, the sewers, there is multiple damage,” says Jorge Solís, a Miramar resident who is also being affected.
At certain moments of the meeting, the conversation got all over the place. And it is that in their faces you can see the frustration because their houses continue to shake. Meanwhile, local authorities acknowledge there is not much they can do.
“My pool has been declared destroyed,” remarks Nelson Rodríguez, a Miami Lakes resident. “This is something that the state has to fix, it’s not the local politicians.”
Something with which the mayor of Miami-Dade, Daniella Levine-Cava, agrees, who explains that “the permission to do this type of work is in the state.”
“And it doesn’t matter how many times you go to Tallahassee or how many times a type of legislation is put in place, none of it happens,” confesses Maribel Balvin, one of the people affected in Miami Lakes. “In other words, we are in a situation where a miracle is going to be able to help all the people who are so affected.”
In the end, the Miami-Dade County mayor engaged with concerned residents. “I’m going to study the problem, look at the problem to check the levels, and I’m also going to talk to the companies.”
Telemundo 51 has tried to establish contact with the mining company White Rock Quarriers but so far we have not received a response. Meanwhile, those most affected assure that they have been waiting for several years for solutions.
