Waste Tire Pile Clean Ups

History - Problem Statement

Before

Piles of old waste tires exist all over Virginia, in sizes from 100 tires to almost 5,000,000. Waste tire piles gain most attention when they burn. The 1983 tire fire in Frederick County near Winchester burned for 9 months, became a 17 year Superfund site, and was a major factor in establishing state-level Waste Tire Programs in Virginia and many other states. Fires in Roanoke , Bedford , Dinwiddie, Sussex and Henrico counties, and Richmond demonstrated the potential hazards of such piles.

After

Dumping of waste tires can be traced back to the 1950s. Recapping of tires, once a viable business utilizing millions of tires, began a steady decline. Recycling opportunities were practically non-existent until the mid 1990's. Dumping became commonplace, because landfilling was expensive (tires had to be cut apart before disposal). Tires were dumped in hundreds of locations throughout Virginia for “erosion control” purposes or temporary “storage”, awaiting the day when tires would be valuable for their petroleum content. All of these activities were legal in Virginia in those days.

One of DEQ’s earliest waste tire management efforts was to quantify the extent of the dumping problem in Virginia. In 1993, DEQ initiated a statewide inventory of such piles. The 12-month effort required 4 full time staff people, who surveyed every city, county and town in the Commonwealth. Many piles were readily known by local government officials and game wardens but others required searches by vehicle and on foot to complete the study. Staff located and inventoried 731 piles containing an estimated 17.6 million tires. Since that time, over 500 additional piles were discovered and surveyed. The total number of tires then exceeded 25 million.

(click on map to view higher resolution map - 226K)

Cleanup Status, Funding and Plans

Since 1993, DEQ has utilized a number of programs and processes to clean up tire piles. Overall, as illustrated in the map above, 1,147 piles containing 23,600,000 tires have been remediated at a total cost of $ 21,900,000. At least 131 piles containing approximately 2.0 million tires remain to be cleaned.

After the 2002 Roanoke tire fire, the General Assembly decided to provide more funds to speed up the the process. The 2003 General Assembly increased the existing $0.50 fee to $1.00 per tire, beginning July 1, 2003 and now running through June 30, 2011, with all extra revenue dedicated to tire pile cleanups.

With the sunset of the increased tire fee on July 1, 2011, contracted tire pile cleanups will be reduced in favor of alternative tire pile cleanup options as yet undefined.  Existing tire piles already on the DEQ database listing will be evaluated as to environmental concern and accessibility, and "new" tire piles will be evaluated as reported.

Cleanup Types

           A. Demonstration Programs

After the 1993 survey, DEQ first undertook a series of demonstration programs, mainly to determine industry capability and partnering with localities.

One such project remains the largest civil engineering project ever undertaken in the US:

- the Route 199 bridge fill section project by VDOT in Williamsburg utilized the equivalent of 2 million tires in “reject” tire shreds from the Virginia Recycling Corporation (VRC). The project was instrumented and monitored by VDOT’s Research Council and established shred specification for VDOT’s future work. It also solved VRC’s chip storage problem.

Other Projects included:

- the first phase of cleaning up Virginia’s largest pile (Sealston in King George County) involved clearing the treed perimeter, cutting 6 fire lanes and removing 400,000 tires from the 16 acre pile.

- the Scearce site in Halifax was chosed due to proximity to the Dan River.

- projects in Greenville and Nelson counties involved the use of inmate labor.

- a project in Henry County dealt with the remnants of a tire fire.

Results from all types of DEQ programs are shown in the chart below

          B. Regional Tire Collection and Recycling Programs

These programs (see Current Flow Management) involved two cleanup efforts:

- the cleanup of tires at each participating landfill

- a clean up of all piles on the Eastern Shore via the SPSA Regional Program ( DEQ’s first “Clean Sweep”)

           C. End User Reimbursement Program

The higher payments for tire pile cleanup tires  has been DEQ’s most prolific and cost effective cleanup effort. The overall cost for 13,600,000 tires at 200 sites was only $0.68 per tire, the lowest of all efforts . However, it’s targets were the largest and “easiest” piles in Virginia, resulting in low units costs and good economies of scale.  It is expected that such cleanups may continue for "drive up" pile cleanups.

           D. The Clean Sweep Programs ( I and II)

These programs were created to utilize the General Assembly’s extra revenue to tackle the remaining piles, most of which were in very challenging terrain. Some involved multiple contractors. DEQ denoted as  "Clean Sweep I," the work funded  in 2003 - 2006, which resulted in an overall unit cost of $2.50 per tire. "Clean Sweep II" denotes the work completed after 2006.  Unit cost to-date is $2.17 per tire.

           E. “By Owner”

A very high number of piles (681) were cleaned up by the property owner, some just after DEQ’s surveys and others as property was sold. The majority were very small, however, with the average size of 2,500 tires. Nontheless, these actions saved DEQ and the Commonwealth considerable expenses, probably in the order of $2 to $3 million.

Tire pile status

Progress by Cleanup Method