Waste Tire Stockpile Abatement Plan Executive Summary

Executive Summary

The "Waste Tire Management and Recycling Act of 2003" (Act) was enacted to ensure the proper management of waste tires in New York State. The Act, among other things, established waste tire management priorities for New York State, enacted a waste tire management and recycling fee of $2.50 per new tire sold, established the Waste Tire Management and Recycling Fund to which the waste tire management and recycling fee will be deposited, and required the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to prepare a comprehensive plan by September 12, 2004 designed to abate all noncompliant waste tire stockpiles in New York State by December 31, 2010.

Consistent with the requirements of the Act, this Waste Tire Stockpile Abatement Plan (Plan) is a comprehensive plan designed to abate all noncompliant waste tire stockpiles in New York State by December 31, 2010, seeking abatement first through voluntary efforts, where feasible, and by DEC direct action where voluntary efforts are not feasible or are unsuccessful.

To develop this Plan, DEC undertook an enumeration and assessment effort to verify the existence of suspected waste tire stockpiles and estimate the number of tires at each noncompliant site. During the summer and fall of 2003, DEC staff visited 162 locations that were identified as potential waste tire stockpiles which resulted in the documentation of 95 noncompliant waste tire stockpiles.

There are an estimated 29 million waste tires currently stockpiled in the 95 noncompliant waste tire stockpile sites identified throughout the State. Five sites have one million or more stockpiled waste tires present. In total, these five sites contain approximately 24.7 million waste tires, representing approximately 85% of all waste tires stockpiled throughout the State. Five sites have fewer than one million, but 175,000 or more waste tires present, representing approximately 8% of all waste tires stockpiled. Forty-two sites have fewer than 175,000, but 10,000 or more waste tires present, representing approximately 6% of the total waste tires stockpiled, and 43 sites have fewer than 10,000 waste tires present, representing the remaining approximately 1% of total waste tires stockpiled.

There are currently four permitted and 19 registered compliant waste tire facilities in New York State permitted or registered in accordance with New York State Solid Waste Management Facility Regulations (6 NYCRR Part 360).

The five largest noncompliant waste tire stockpiles in New York State, representing approximately 85% of all stockpiled tires, are located at:

A priority list for abatement of each noncompliant waste tire stockpile was developed by establishing criteria to assess potential adverse impacts on public health, safety or welfare, the environment, or natural resources. After consideration of a wide array of potential factors, the following eight criteria were selected to evaluate each of the 95 noncompliant waste tire stockpiles in an effort to formulate an abatement priority list:

• number of waste tires on site;
• location over a primary aquifer;
• proximity to Class C or higher streams (located within 250 meters);
• proximity to regulated State wetlands (located within 250 meters);
• location within a potential environmental justice area;
• proximity to schools (located within one kilometer);
• proximity to hospitals (located within one kilometer); and
• proximity to population centers (located within one kilometer).

A scoring system was developed with the possible range of scores from one to 15. Sites with the highest scores were afforded the highest priority on the abatement priority list. The Fortino Site scored the highest, with a score of 10. Mohawk Tire Recycling and New York Tire/Izzo Property received the next highest ranking, with a score of 9. The remaining 92 sites received scores ranging from 8 to one, and are more completely described in Chapter 3.

Based on this evaluation, a priority list for abatement of sites was established. It was determined that the sites with a score of five or higher should be the initial target sites for abatement activities:

While initial work is ongoing at the priority sites, work will also be undertaken at the remaining sites as well. Initial work consists of a series of administrative and enforcement steps designed to encourage voluntary management of the tires by the site owners or operators. Should those steps not achieve abatement of these waste tire stockpiles in a timely manner, the DEC will assume abatement responsibility.

This Plan seeks to eliminate all noncompliant waste tire stockpiles in the State by December 31, 2010 by a combination of site owner/operator effort and DEC work, should the site owners/operators fail to abate the noncompliant waste tire stockpiles in a timely manner. In the event the DEC must assume abatement responsibility, DEC will seek beneficial uses for the tires. At the present time, DEC is developing plans to use waste tires in road construction activities in cooperation with the New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) and the New York State Thruway Authority (Thruway Authority) to beneficially use the bulk of the waste tires.

DEC recognizes that additional waste tire stockpile sites may be identified during the next few years. If this occurs, DEC will assess these noncompliant waste tire stockpiles as they are identified, determine their priority for cleanup, and incorporate them into the abatement schedule.

Contact for this Page

DMM, Bureau of Solid Waste Management
625 Broadway
Albany, NY 12233

Phone: 518-402-8678

[email protected]

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