Reporting Environmental Emergencies, Complaints, and Environmental Crimes

The Department of Environmental Resources Management (DERM) responds to environmental complaints and emergencies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  If your complaint is an emergency please call (305) 372-6955.

If the situation is not an emergency you can

• File a non-emergency Environmental Complaint online.

The following situations should be reported to DERM immediately:

• Waste liquid discharges or spills into storm drains, street drains, parking lot drains, waterways, or onto the open ground.
   
• Tanker trucks dumping waste into manholes, drainage structures, waterways, or on the ground.
   
• Any spill or discharge to the environment of suspected (hazardous) waste.
   
• Chemical spills or dumping incidents; any dumping of chemical drums or containers or abandoned drums.
   
• Discharge or spills of gasoline, oil or waste hydrocarbons; fuel fumes in drainage structures or manholes.
   
• Discharge or spills of pesticides; any dumping of pesticide containers.
   
• Sewage overflows from any source. 
    
• Potable water main breaks.
   
• Smoke or dust emissions from any facility.
   
• Any severe odor or vapor that affects the eyes and/or breathing, or results in skin irritation; call 911 and then call DERM’s Complaint Desk.
   
• Turbid (cloudy) water in any waterway, canal, or Biscayne Bay; may be due to construction and may be discharged through a pipe or from a storm drain.
   
• Open burning (not fires used for cooking).  Call the Fire Department first – DERM generally responds to improper or illegal burning in relatively uninhabited areas and investigates these jointly with the local fire department.
   
• Removal, cutting or bulldozing of trees, including mangroves in coast (particularly during the evenings or on weekends).
   
• Fish kills  (1.9MB)
  (numbering more than 50 fish in one general location).
   
• Duck kills   (1.89MB)
   
• Any dredging or filling in or along Biscayne Bay.

If any of the above situations are observed or arise contact the Miami-Dade County Department of Environmental Resources Management/DERM Complaint Desk at (305) 372-6955.

Environmental Crimes may be reported to the Miami-Dade County Police Department Environmental Crimes Unit at (305) 477-1616.