Program Component #3 - Waste Tire Pile Clean Up Program

Problem Statement

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 and was a major factor in establishing state-level Waste Tire Programs in Virginia and many other states. More recent fires in Roanoke County, Bedford County, Dinwiddie County, Richmond and Wakefield continue to demonstrate the potential hazards of such piles.

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. 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 until 1988.

One of DEQ’s earliest waste tire management efforts was to quantify the entext 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, another 500 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 utlized an number of programs and processes to cleanup tire piles. Overall, as illustrated in the map above, DEQ has remediated 1,060 piles containing 22,700,00 tires at a total cost of $ 20,300,000. At least 161 piles containing 2.45 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 fee to $1.00 per tire, beginning July 1, 2003 and running through June 30, 2008, with all extra revenue dedicated to tire pile cleanups.

During 2007, DEQ developed a plan for the use of the remaining funds to be available via this increase. The “Clean Sweep II” Plan (Waste Tire Pile Cleanup Program- Clean Sweep (Phase II) Plan) indicates DEQ’s plans through 2008. With the available revenue, a significant number of piles in the Richmond and Tidewater areas can not be addressed.

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. Several were relatively small, but one 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.

-projects in Greensville, Halifax, Henry and Nelson demonstrated localities’ willingness to conduct projects (which has since diminished). The Greensville and Nelson projects used State inmate labor

-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.

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

          B. Regional Tire Collection and Recycling Programs

These programs (Component #1- Current Flow Management) involved two cleanup efforts:

-the cleanup of tires at each participating landfill

-an offer to clean up 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 (Component #2- End User Reimbursment Program) has been DEQ’s most prolific and cost effective cleanup effort. The overall cost for 13,400,000 tires 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

           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 deemed Clean Sweep I for work funded by the 2003 fee increase and resulted in an overall unit cost of $2.58 per tire. Clean Sweep II is designated for the funds provided by the extension from 2006 through 2008. This work began in late 2007.

           E. “By Owner”

A very high number of piles (672) 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

	Total	Cleaned up to date	Remaining
Piles	1,221	1,060	161
Tires	25,100,000	22,700,000	2,400,000
Cost	--------	$20,300,000	TBD

Cleanups are accomplished by 4 different means: from the End User Reimbursement Program (Component #1), demonstration projects, the Regional Programs (Component #2), or by the owner. The breakdown by type are shown below:

Clean Up Type	# Piles	# Tires (PTE)	Cost ($)
EUR Only	187	13,400,000	$9,100,000
Demonstrations	7	2,800,000	$1,600,000
Regional Programs	76	1,700,000	$1,600,000
By Owners	672	1,700,000	Unkown
Clean Sweep I	118	3,100,000	$8,000,000
Clean Sweep II	161	2,400,000	TBD