Posted on: Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Cleanup of dumped tires cost state $1.2 million
By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Health Writer
Getting rid of a huge pile of shredded tires illegally dumped in Wai'anae a decade ago cost the state more than $1.2 million, state health officials said.
The state Health Department says consumers should take their old tires for disposal to the store or dealer when they buy new tires. Health Department official Steve Chang said people pay a disposal fee for each new tire they buy, averaging between $3.50 and $5 for standard tires and more for larger tires. The state requires retailers to accept the old tires when replacements are purchased. In turn, those who sell the tires are required by law to deliver the used tires to authorized tire recyclers. Chang said the cleanup was completed at the end of May and took about 13 months.
Chang said the state will try to recoup the removal costs from the landowners: Richard Avilla and Pearl Key. He said the tires were first taken to the Wai'anae area in 1994, even though the facility never had a permit to dump or recycle tires there.
He said most of the tires had been chopped into six-inch squares that were stored in rows of piles about 30 feet high at the five-acre site. In December 1997, some of the piles caught fire, prompting the evacuation of nearby homes.
Chang said the company that trucked the tires there was formerly known as Industrial Technology, which ended up filing for bankruptcy. In March 1998, Chang said the U.S. Bankruptcy Court granted a move by the company's trustees to abandon the property.
He said the illegal dump was a health hazard.
"It was sitting there for over seven years," Chang said Monday. "It was a concern to us that it could pose another fire threat."
In 2000, the Legislature passed a law to require that importers who bring in new tires would pay a $1 surcharge on each tire to help pay for recycling and disposal. Chang said that fund collects about $1 million a year from tire sales. He said the fund paid for the disposal in Wai'anae.
When Unitek cleaned up the dump, the company found about 6,628 tons of solid waste — made up mostly of shredded and partially melted tires, he said. Of that, more than 5,014 tons were processed into pellet-sized chunks that could be made into "tire-derived fuel."
Chang said that material was sold to AES Hawai'i Inc. to be burned to generate power locally. Another 1,586 tons of wire — mostly from the steel belting in the tires — and other unusable material had to be taken to the Waimanalo Gulch landfill.
He said the cleanup is good news for the community, which had been dealing with the potential for another fire as well as the creation of a habitat inviting to mosquitoes, rats and mice.
Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.
The state hired contractor Unitek Solvent Services Inc. to get rid of what remained of some 660,000 shredded tires left on Ma'ili'ili Road in Lualualei, according to Steve Chang, branch chief of solid and hazardous waste for the Health Department.
Tire disposal
