Pa. DEP Reached Tire Pile Cleanup Agreement

“This resolution took much longer than it should have, and the tires at this site have posed a serious threat to the environment and public health for far too long,” Secretary McGinty said. “The Rendell Administration recognized that solving this problem was an environmental priority. We went at it hard, and finally, we are on a course to end this long-standing threat.”

The 14-acre tire pile is on property owned by the Starrs in Greenwood Township, Columbia County. It has been the subject of numerous DEP enforcement actions and litigation since the mid-1980s.

“DEP is determined to implement a more aggressive enforcement policy in these cases where the responsible party is refusing to cooperate and where the threat to the public is real. I commend the DEP staff who have stuck with this problem for so long,” Secretary McGinty said.

Under terms of the proposed court order, the Starrs must pay a $400,000 civil penalty to DEP for failing to remove waste tires from their property as required by an administrative order issued by DEP on Jan. 25, 2002. The Starrs also will be required to relinquish operational control of the tire pile to DEP for the purposes of removing waste tires, mowing the area and spraying for mosquitoes. However, the Starrs will maintain liability insurance on the site.

In addition, DEP already has contacted about 42 businesses that sent tires to the Starr property in the 1980s. DEP is requesting that those businesses remove the same number of tires that they disposed on the Starr property.

Once the waste tire cleanup is complete, the property will be sold with all proceeds going to the state as reimbursement for money spent on the cleanup.

“With the expected cooperation of the generators, we hope to have about 300,000 tires removed from the property,” McGinty said. “The remaining 5.5 million tires will be removed over a period of years, and we will use innovative technologies wherever possible to allow us to put the tires to beneficial use when possible.”

The agreement will become final following a 30-day public comment period as required by the Pennsylvania Solid Waste Management Act. It will be published in the legal notice section of the local newspaper, which will contain specific information on where comments can be sent and the deadline date.

For more information on waste tires, visit DEP’s Web site at www.dep.state.pa.us, Keyword: “Waste Tires.”