The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality and the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office have reached a settlement with Central States Tire Recycling of Nebraska, L.L.C., William Miner, and Mary Beth Miner in separate cases filed in Dodge and Cuming counties.
DEQ and the Attorney General’s Office alleged that the company operated without a permit, and failed to comply with a Final Order to cease operations and remove tires from two sites. The settlement is contained in a Joint Consent Decree and Order of Contempt approved by the district courts of Dodge and Cuming counties.
Central States Tire Recycling formerly was permitted to operate a tire collection and processing facility. However, the company’s permit was revoked in November 2002.
In a Contempt proceeding, the state alleged that Central States and the Miners violated a Final Order issued by DEQ and the Dodge County, Nebraska District Court requiring them to cease operations and remove tires from two sites in the Wisner area.
In a case filed by the State in Cuming County District Court, the State alleged that Central States and William Miner illegally hauled, processed and collected tires without a required permit, and failed to comply with the Final Order that revoked the company’s permit and required the cleanup of the two Wisner-area sites. The Final Order was issued by the DEQ in November 2002 and was affirmed on appeal by the Dodge County District Court and later by the Nebraska Supreme Court.
The settlement requires Central States remove all scrap tires, tire-derived product, and residual material from the collection and processing facility east of Wisner, and from a site in Wisner, a former wetland. All tires and tire-derived materials removed from the two sites must be taken by July 1, 2005 to a facility approved to accept scrap tires.
DEQ staff estimated that Central States had, in the fall of 2003, accumulated over 600,000 tires at its facility after DEQ had ordered the site to be cleaned up. The number of tires buried at the wetland site is estimated at 430,000. The tires were bound with baling wire prior to being buried. The tire bales removed from this site may be taken to the company’s collection and processing facility to be prepared for disposal. Central States is required to use a lawful tire hauler to perform the removal work.
Central States must also provide to DEQ proof that the two sites have been properly closed in the agreed timeframe and that all tires have been removed. If work at the two sites is not completed by July 1, 2005, Central States and its officers and directors, including the Miners, are subject to civil penalties of $100 per day.
Two corporations related to Central States, Nebraska Ag Products Co. and TransAgra Capital Corp., are also included as parties in the state’s settlement with Central States.