Agency revising scrap-tire rules

Change would allow trust-fund money for cleanup at dump The Damco wastetire processing plant in Mountain Home holds 1 million tires the Department of Environmental Quality estimates will cost about $1 million to turn into a water-control structure for a

The Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission has started the process to allow the state to spend up to $ 1 million to clean up 1 million scrap tires at a dump in north Arkansas.

The Damco waste- tire processing plant in Mountain Home holds 1 million tires the Department of Environmental Quality estimates will cost about $1 million to turn into a water-control structure for a dam in the northern part of the state.

The plant is owned by Damco Inc. of Mountain Home and contracted with the Ozark Mountain Regional Solid Waste Management District to dispose of scrap tires more than 10 years ago. The site, under state and district oversight, has operated for several years with excess tires.

The proposed change for scrap- tire rules, which is based on Act 1037 of 2015, would allow the state to use a landfill post-closure trust fund to apply to “waste tire processing facilities and waste tire disposal sites owned and operated by districts that lack sufficient funds to complete closure of the permitted waste tire processing or waste tire disposal site.”

The landfill fund has about $17.4 million and is being tapped by C&L Landfill in Fayetteville for a project that started in 2015 and was approved to use up to $3.4 million.

The department also intends to use the fund to pay for closing North Arkansas Board of Regional Sanitation landfill in Mountain Home, which is owned by the Ozark Mountain Regional Solid Waste District. That project could cost several million dollars.

Tire dumps can attract insects and rodents and are particularly hazardous if they catch fire.

Tire dumps also are breeding grounds for mosquitoes, which carry diseases. Commissioner Joseph Bates noted the Zika virus, which hasn’t been contracted in Arkansas but has been contracted recently in Florida, is spread by certain types of mosquitoes. The virus concerns public-health officials primarily because of the link between infections in pregnant women and children born with microcephaly — unusually small heads and underdeveloped brains, said Bates, who is also chief science officer with the Health Department.

Commissioner Wesley Stites asked the Environmental Quality Department’s Hazardous Waste Division manager, Tammie Hynum, whether the regulation change, if passed, would apply to all tire dumps in Arkansas. Hynum said the wording of the law indicates all waste tire dumps in the state could receive funds.

Act 1037’s sponsor, Rep. Bob Ballinger, R-Berryville, said after the meeting the law was designed to allow the department to address the Damco site. Damco isn’t specifically mentioned in the law.

Solid waste regulations allow the department to use landfill post-closure money for closing landfills and toward electronics recycling in certain circumstances. But regulation changes proposed to comply with two laws passed last year would allow the department to spend that money on closing scrap-tire dumps, too, and would separate the electronics recycling program into its own fee program.

The department is changing regulations to comply with those laws. Members of the public will have the opportunity to comment on the changes later this year before they are formally adopted.

At Damco, the tires were to be recycled and used for water control at a dam, but many never were used because the district ran out of money for the project.

The tire pile is now under the control of the Environmental Quality Department, which plans to contract with a company to finish the project and seek reimbursement later from the district.

The solid-waste district now sends its tires to Champlin Tires in Concordia, Kan., for recycling.