Ohio EPA Completes Tire Pile Cleanup

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has announced that it has completed the cleanup of the massive tire dump near Sycamore, Ohio. It took roughly nine years for the EPA to have the site cleaned. Chris Korleski, Ohio EPA director, said the cleanup effort at the site demonstrates the accomplishments of the state’s scrap tire program.

During the Kirby cleanup the agency estimates that contractors removed more than 25 million scrap tires from the site from July 1999 to March 2008.

Ohio EPA has spent more than $13 million to remove the surface tires, almost $11 million to remove the buried tire fire residuals, plus more than $7 million to treat surface water contaminated when it contacted the tires buried in the fire. Funding for this and other cleanups comes from a $1 fee collected on new tires sold in Ohio.