Wisconsin AG Reaches Settlement with Tire Recycler

The state of Wisconsin’s Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager announced that her office has filed a complaint and settlement in an environmental protection enforcement lawsuit against Watertown Tire Recyclers LLC for violations of the state's solid waste management laws. The company will pay $320,000 in penalties and costs for violations at its now closed tire recycling facility in Shields, WI.

The settlement is a global agreement that resolves claims by the State as well as by Citizens for a Safe Environment, the Town of Shields, the City of Watertown, Dodge County and 94 other local entities that responded to a fire at the Watertown Tire Recyclers facility last July. The settlement provides for payment of $267,893.21 to local responders, $31,000 to the Department of Natural Resources for its fire response costs, and $21,106.79 to the State in forfeitures and surcharges. The settlement provides that Thomas Springer shall guarantee the payments, and binds Springer and Springer Express Freight, which currently operates a tire collection and transportation business at the Provimi Road site, to the essential terms of the settlement.

According to the settlement, the tire collection and transportation business will end by 2010, and all existing rights to non-permitted uses at the site, which is in an A-1 agricultural zoning district, will also end in 2010.

"From the start, it was important to both the State and the local citizens that this enforcement action provide a vehicle for addressing continuing concerns with the tire-related uses at this property, and for recognizing the contributions of the many local entities that responded to the potentially dangerous fire there last July," said Lautenschlager.

In addition to paying the $320,000, Watertown Tire Recyclers and Thomas Springer have agreed to remove all contaminated soil remaining on the site after the fire, and to dispose of it at an area landfill. According to Lautenschlager, the proper disposal of that soil will cost Springer $75,000.

According to the Department of Justice’s complaint, prior to the fire in July 2005, Watertown Tire Recyclers exceeded its allowed volume of tires, failed to maintain adequate fire lanes, stored tires improperly, and failed to submit required reports and to notify the Department of Natural Resources of problems and changes. According to DOJ, the facility is currently in compliance with DNR requirements.