According to The Mobile Press Register, the city of Mobile, Ala., has tabled approval of a second auto shredder to be built in the city. The decision to postpone the vote follows concern, expressed by Council members, that the first shredder has been flagged with some citations.
Alter Trading, which received approval to build an auto shredder, was cited by the city for violations of city ordinances.
Richard Olsen, Mobile's deputy planning director, told the council a city inspector had cited Alter for storing cars on its property before getting a certificate of occupancy. The city also cited Alter and the owner of the adjoining Hooks Terminal property for storing cars on that property. Doug Anderson, a local lawyer representing St. Louis-based Alter, said the company has a month-to-month lease to store cars on part of the Hooks property.
As for the large number of crushed autos on the two sites, Anderson said the piles would be reduced once Alter starts to operate the auto shredder at full capacity. The newspaper article notes that the shredder should be operational within one month.
To assuage city concerns, Alter said it will halt accepting any new material.
The issue with Alter has resulted in David’s Auto Shredding, which earlier had reached an agreement with various groups in the area on their proposed auto shredder, to have their request for rezoning the site halted.
"Frankly, I'm reluctant to continue approving this type of operation in the city of Mobile until we have some type of regulation," Councilwoman Connie Hudson said.
On Councilman William Carroll's recommendation, rezoning for Hickman's plant was put off for two weeks. Carroll said that without new rules, he would push for the council to deny the rezoning. Because Hickman's property is in Carroll's district, that opposition would be influential.
"If we keep overlooking it, we're going to get overrun by scrap metal coming from Louisiana," Carroll said, citing the hundreds of thousands of cars ruined by Hurricane Katrina that are now being recycled.
Both Alter and Hickman reached agreements with Mobile Baykeeper, the environmental group formerly known as Mobile Bay Watch, on procedures to keep mercury and other hazardous material from escaping into the water, air and ground.
Through a legal twist, once Baykeeper dropped its opposition to Alter, the city Planning Commission gave its blessing and no Mobile City Council approval was required. Mobile Press Register