The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency announced that it contracted with a vendor that has removed close to 100,000 tires from an illegal tire disposal site in St. Johns, Ohio. The property owner has been ordered to pay a civil penalty of $2,500, plus reimburse the state for cleanup costs.
In 2002, property owner Robert G. Keller of Wapakoneta, had been ordered to remove all scrap tires from the property by March 2003, implement mosquito controls and move the tires into proper storage piles until the cleanup was complete. When those orders were not carried out, Ohio EPA issued new orders this summer authorizing the state to perform the cleanup.