Missouri moving to clean up tire dumps

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Department of Natural Resources is again seeking bidders to clean up more than 100 illegal tire dumps.

The department had ceased awarding contracts to private companies to clean up the tire dumps after the state's 50-cent surcharge on the purchase of new tires expired Jan. 1, 2004. That surcharge went toward funding the state's waste tire program.

Since the fee ended, the department has relied on inmate labor to clean up 2.3 million tires at smaller dump sites.

But Republican lawmakers debating whether to reinstate the tire fee have noted that $1.7 million remains in the state's cleanup fund and questioned why the department has failed to award contracts addressing the remaining dumps.

An estimated 1.5 million tires are scattered across the state in illegal dumps, said Beth Marsala, enforcement section chief for the department's solid waste management program.

Since the waste tire fee started in 1990, the state has cleaned up more than 12 million tires. Waste tires can pose health and environmental hazards when not properly disposed of, the department said, and water standing in them can help breed disease-carrying mosquitoes.

Two years have passed since any cleanup efforts have been made at two of the state's largest tire dumps, one of which caught fire a few weeks ago. Nearly 1 million tires were ablaze at the Polk County tire dump in mid-March, leaving 30,000 tires that still need to be removed from there.

Marsala said that since then she has struggled to start the new bidding process with no staff.

Nine employees responsible for waste tire enforcement, requesting bids and working with contractors have been laid off.

She said she is hoping the department can begin seeking bids for the state's two largest tire dumps in the next six months.

Without the tire fee to help fund staff, Marsala said the department has no way to investigate illegal tire dumping.

"We've got a really good network set up and our biggest problem now is we can't enforce it," Marsala said

Senators are working with House members on a bill re-establishing the waste tire surcharge for three years. One of them, Sen. Jason Crowell, has been critical of how the program has been managed in the past. He said he trusts the department's new director -- former Republican Sen. Doyle Childers.

"That's been all the difference in the world," said Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau.

On the Net

Waste Tire Program: www.dnr.mo.gov/alpd/swmp/tires/tirelist.htm