Deerfield Beach, Coconut Creek accept settlement limiting Monarch Hill expansion and securing monitoring and concessions

Deerfield Beach commissioners voted Aug. 19 to approve a settlement with Broward County and Waste Management Inc. of Florida over the proposed expansion of the Monarch Hill landfill. The settlement — negotiated with outside counsel and the neighboring City of Coconut Creek — imposes a series of concessions on Waste Management, limits future expansion and creates enforceable requirements intended to reduce environmental, visual and public-safety impacts on adjacent communities.

What the pact does: The agreement places a contractual ceiling on the landfill’s final elevation at 325 feet, prevents new landfilling within roughly a one-mile radius of the existing site, and establishes a post-closure planning requirement and an approximate closure horizon of about 25 years. The agreement also features a package of operational controls to address odor, litter, gas capture and monitoring, additional groundwater sampling and specified bird-abatement…