The Indiana Department of Environmental Management is continuing to take illegal waste tire processors to court. The state agency has filed a temporary restraining order against Stewart Recycling, located in Monroe City, Ind. The IDEM also will be seeking an injunction by the Knox (County) Circuit Court on Nov. 7th.
Stewart is a scrap metal and tire processing operation. According to Dan Hottle, a spokesman for the IDEM, the state first worked out an agreement with the recycling company in 1998 to clean up some of the tires on the site. However, the company failed to carry through with the original plans, including spraying for mosquitoes, reduce the tire piles by a steady amount, and paying a civil penalty of $21,000. The IDEM then wrote an agreed upon order and a time frame.
However, Hottle says, the company has yet to accomplish any of the three tasks required by the written order, resulting in the IDEM filing the restraining order, prohibiting the company from taking in any more tires.
The order follows the agency obtaining a temporary restraining order against two other tire recycling operations last week -- Wabash Valley Recycling, Terre Haute; and Mobile Scrap Tire Processing and Disposal, Lafayette. (Read earlier story)
There are 31 licensed tire recycling/processing facilities in Indiana.
According to a local press report the IDEM, along with the Indiana Attorney General’s office, is looking at filing temporary restraining orders against other tire processors in the state.