California EPA orders recycler to remove tyres

ERJ staff report (DS)

San Francisco, California -- The US Environmental Protection Agency is ordering Consolidated Tire Recyclers, Inc., which operates a tyre recycling facility in Mecca, California to remove excess stockpiled tyres and improve fire prevention or face fines of up to $7,500 per day.

The tyre recycling facility primarily sells crumb rubber as fuel to a power generation plant. It is located within the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians Reservation.

The EPA's order supports the Tribe's action of May 26, 2011 when it issued Consolidated Tire Recyclers a Notice of Violation and Order to Comply requiring the facility to better manage the tyres at its facility. On Thursday, June 2, Blumenfeld will be meeting with tribal leaders and touring the site.

The unilateral order, issued under the authority of the federal Resource Conservation & Recovery Act, follows a 2011 facility visit in which EPA, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Tribe found an estimated 90,000 tyres to be an imminent fire risk. On May 17, 2011, a fyre broke out in a building at the facility; no one was hurt and the fire was contained to a shredded tyre piping system.

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Press release from EPA (California region)