Five-Year Tire Management Plan

Cleanup, Abatement, or Other Remedial Action Related to Tire Stockpiles Throughout the State

• State of the Program
• Direction/Recommendations From the AB 117 Report
• Direction Provided by SB 876
• Strategic Plan Goals and Objectives
• The Plan
• Performance Measures

State of the Program

Pursuant to PRC section 42846, CIWMB may perform any cleanup, abatement, or remedial work required to prevent substantial pollution, nuisance, or injury to the public’s health and safety at waste tire sites where the responsible parties have failed to take appropriate action as directed by CIWMB. These efforts may entail stabilizing piles until they can be removed, removal of all waste tires, and/or remediation of the site after removal of the tires. In general, these waste tire sites are referred to the Waste Tire Stabilization and Abatement Program once CIWMB’s Waste Tire Enforcement Program has exhausted enforcement efforts.

Since it began in 1994, CIWMB has utilized contractors to remediate or stabilize illegal waste tire sites. To date, CIWMB has awarded four contracts totaling approximately $8.9 million. Since 1995, CIWMB has removed more than 12.8 million illegal waste tires from 46 sites at an average removal cost of $0.67 per tire for a total cost of nearly $6.9 million. Of the 12.8 million illegal waste tires removed since 1995, approximately 77 percent went to a productive end use and 23 percent to landfills. While the number of sites remediated each year has remained almost constant, the cost of cleanup has varied significantly depending on the number of large projects undertaken that year.

Table 2: IWMB Annual Remediation

* In 2001 no short-term remediation projects were completed because all tire remediation resources were focused on the cleanup of the Westley tire fire site.
** Complicated legal issues contributed to average cost of $2.82.

While the aim of CIWMB is to stabilize all unsafe or environmentally hazardous tire piles until abatement can be completed, three large tire pile fires and several small blazes have occurred since the beginning of the program. In 1996, approximately 1.5 million tires burned at the Choperena waste tire site in Fresno. Seven million tires were consumed in 1998 at the fire at the Royster waste tire site in Tracy. In 1999, another 5 million tires were consumed at the fire at the Filbin waste tire site in Westley.

All of these sites have or will require CIWMB-funded remediation through contracts funded by the tire program.

The intent of the Local Government Waste Tire Cleanup Matching Grant Program is to create local partnerships, and partnerships with Native American reservations and rancherías, to facilitate the removal, transport, and disposal/reuse of waste tires from legacy tire piles and piles exceeding 500 tires. CIWMB has issued local government waste tire cleanup grants for four fiscal years starting in fiscal year 1997/98. During this time, CIWMB awarded 26 grants totaling $874,468. Under these grants, local governments have remediated an estimated 346,806 illegal waste tires, as indicated in the following table.

Table 3: Local Government Remediation Grants

* The number of tires remediated is an estimate, since the Board has not received all the final reports.

Since 1992, CIWMB has provided more than $1.4 million in grant funding to support local amnesty days and public education efforts. Ninety grants have been awarded to local government for amnesty programs and used tire abatement efforts. With these grants, local governments hold amnesty days for the public to drop off waste tires, clean up small illegal tire piles, establish tire collection networks, purchase tire collection vehicles and equipment, and develop public education materials on proper maintenance and disposal of automobile tires. The following table is a summary of the Amnesty Day grants.

Table 4: Amnesty Day Grants

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Direction/Recommendations From the AB 117 Report

Remediating existing tire piles is a challenge. During the AB 117 workshops, industry representatives considered remediation second only to enforcement in priority. The costs associated with remediation are considerable, and property owners and operators are many times reluctant to expend the money for major cleanup operations. The problem is compounded because many times the tire piles are located on economically undesirable land and cleanup costs exceed the value of the land itself, making land seizure a hollow threat. In other cases, the property owners are victims of unscrupulous operators (tenants) and do not have the necessary resources to pay for cleanup.

The legal process to bring about the cleanup of waste tires by property owners or to conduct a CIWMB-managed cleanup can take years and can be expensive. This process is initiated only after direct negotiations fail and CIWMB has exhausted its administrative enforcement actions against the property owners. In addition, in some cases, CIWMB must work with the Office of the Attorney General to seek property access and conduct a CIWMB-managed cleanup.

The AB 117 workgroup recommended that CIWMB initiate an aggressive two-year cleanup program to eliminate all known major illegal waste tire piles (more than 5,000 tires in size). Completely eliminating the largest illegal piles will greatly reduce the major environmental dangers associated with waste tires and will provide a positive message to the public that progress is being made toward an overall solution. Both State and local efforts will be needed.

To prevent waste tire pile fires and deal with those that do occur, CIWMB should continue to work with the Office of the State Fire Marshall (OSFM) to update the tire fire curriculum, work with appropriate State agencies to develop a tire fire protocol, and work with the Western Fire Chiefs Association to update and amend the Uniform Fire Code. CIWMB should also take the lead in making certain the most current information is available on the nature of tire fires.

Direction Provided by SB 876

PRC Section 42889:`

“The moneys in the fund shall be expended for… the following purposes:

(e) To pay the costs of cleanup, abatement, removal, or other remedial action related to tire stockpiles throughout the state, including, all approved costs incurred by other public agencies involved in these activities by contract with the Board. Not less than six million five hundred thousand dollars ($6,500,000) shall be expended by the board during each of the following fiscal years for this purpose: 2001-02 to 2006-07, inclusive.

(i) To pay the costs to create and maintain an emergency reserve, which shall not exceed one million dollars ($1,000,000).

(j) To pay the costs of cleanup, abatement, or other remedial action related to the disposal of used whole tires in implementing and operating the Farm and Ranch Solid Waste Cleanup and Abatement Grant Program established pursuant to Chapter 2.5 (commencing with Section 48100) of Part 7.”

CIWMB’s Strategic Plan Goals and Objectives

Activities pertaining to cleanup, abatement, or other remedial action support Goal 4 of the CIWMB’s Strategic Plan (correlation of CIWMB activities to Strategic Plan in italics).

Strategic Plan, Goal 4
To manage and mitigate the impacts of solid waste on public health and safety and the environment and promote integrated and consistent permitting, inspection, and enforcement efforts.

Objective 4: To intensify efforts to prevent illegal dumping and, where necessary, clean up illegally disposed waste and waste tire sites. This will be accomplished through the implementation of the following strategy.

Strategy C: To direct Board resources and support local efforts to ensure the timely remediation and restoration of illegal disposal sites and illegal waste tire sites that pose the greatest threat to public health and safety and the environment.

Activities pertaining to cleanup, abatement, or other remedial action are directed toward prevention of substantial pollution, nuisance, or injury to the public’s health and safety at waste tire sites. Activities typically include tire-fire remediation efforts, removal of all waste tires, and/or remediation of the site after tire removal.

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Last updated: December 02, 2007