Starr tire pile cleanup continues in Pa.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has reported that more than 158,000 tires have been removed from a tire pile in Greenwood Township, Pa.

The Pennsylvania DEP is directing the tire removal, which is being performed by businesses that disposed of tires at the site.

In April 2004, the DEP contacted more than 45 businesses that sent tires to the property requesting removal of the tires. Ten scrap tire generators hauled away more than 133,000 tires later that year.

However, 21 of the tire generators refused to remove the scrap tires they dumped at the site. In January 2005, the DEP filed a Complaint In Equity in Columbia County Court requiring that each generator to remove its share of scrap tires.

Since that legal action, eight of the 21 generators removed nearly 25,000 tires from the site. DEP currently is involved in litigation with the remaining 13 companies that are responsible for 500,000 waste tires.

In addition, Carbon Services Corp. Lehighton, Pa., received a $300,000 grant in May of 2005 to remove about 2,000 large, hard-to-dispose tires from the site. The tires, which are not suitable for conventional processing because each can weigh more than half a ton, will be baled, filled with concrete and placed off the Delaware coastline to act as an artificial reef in the Atlantic Ocean. That removal work began in February.