The owner of a Pennsylvania tire recycling business has been summoned to court for allegedly failing to comply with a state order to clean up his property.
Investigators from the state Department of Environmental Protection say they have seen more than 300,000 tires at Hawk Recycling in Duryea.
DEP asserts the business is only authorized to accept 30,000 at any given time.
Hawk Recycling Center, owned by Joseph Hawk, processes waste tires for use as fuel, construction materials and feedstock in the manufacturing of consumer products.
According to a suit filed Aug. 6 in Luzerne County Court, Hawk has been in violation of state regulations since DEP investigators were called to the site for a tire fire on Dec. 18, 2002. At that time, officials said at least 100,000 tires had accumulated on the property, and that the tires and tire chips were not being stored in accordance with state regulations.
According to Mark Carmon, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania DEP, after the fire the agency issued a compliance order for Hawk to remove 5,000 tires a month, stop taking in any more tires until the pile was reduced, and reconfigure the tire piles, according to Pennsylvania standards.
However, according to the DEP, Hawk continued to take in tires, resulting in the agency filing the suit in County Court. Carmon says that the DEP is requesting an expedited ruling, meaning a decision could come within a day or two of the court case.
“Hopefully this a wakeup call for Hawk. We will continue to monitor the site up to the court hearing so we can give the judge an update as of that day. We feel confident that we can get the site under control.