Staff Report
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The state Department of Environmental Conservation has hired a firm to remove buried tires in a $1 million project, officials said.
Early estimates were that 10,000 to 20,000 tires were buried on property in West Edmeston in the town of Brookfield in Madison County, just beyond the Otsego County border, DEC officials said recently.
However, the estimate was revised to up to a million tires at the site after some were found buried as deep as 15 feet, officials said. The two-acre site is near the Unadilla River, they said, and some tires have "migrated into the river" because of flooding.
The DEC signed a contract Nov. 15 with S and M Prompt Rubbish Removal Service of Freeport, and the firm has until May 13 to complete the project. The cost is paid through the state's Waste Tire Abatement Fund, which imposes a $2.50 fee each time a tire is purchased.
When the Brookfield project is done, the DEC will seek to recover costs through the state Attorney General's Office. Piles of waste tires pose problems, including as potential sites for fires and mosquito breeding.
The DEC said there are 152 such sites in the state. Of that number, 75 sites have been cleaned up by owners, 39 cleaned up by the state and 38 sites await or are in the process of abatement.
Statewide, about 18 million waste tires are generated each year, which is about one tire per person, the DEC website said. In 2004, the DEC released a plan to abate waste-tire stockpiles.
The DEC was tipped off several years ago to the presence of buried tires at the Brookfield site, which then was owned by Thomas Price, according to summary emailed this month to The Daily Star.
An investigation revealed that Phil Harris had operated a tire-disposal business at the site in the 1980s, the summary said. At some point, the town buried the tires because of concerns that they would hold water and become breeding areas for mosquitoes.
Price signed a consent order with the DEC but wasn't able to clean up the site. If a property owner isn't able to clean up such a site, the DEC is required to take on the job if there are more than 1,000 tires.
The tires will be removed and taken to Seneca Meadows, where they will be used in landfill construction, the summary said.
