Ohio EPA helping in salvage yard scrap tyre clean up

ERJ staff report (TB)

Ashtabula, Ohio - The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is helping Ashtabula County in its efforts to clean up the last 45,000 scrap tyres from the site of a former Ashtabula salvage yard, according to an Ohio EPA spokesman.

An Ohio EPA staffer helped Ashtabula Township fill out an application for a grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to remove the remaining tyres from Accurate Iron and Metal, a 3½-acre site at East 21st Street and State Road in Ashtabula, according to the text of the application.

In May, the Ohio DNR gave Ashtabula Township an $80,000 grant to accomplish the cleanup, starting sometime in the fiscal year beginning July 1, the spokesman said.

Accurate Iron and Metal, which specialised in salvaging scrap metal from vehicles, had approximately 93,000 scrap tyres on site in 2004, the application said. In that year, the Ohio EPA ordered John E. Colucci, the company's owner, to start removing the tyres.

The job was approximately half-finished when Colucci died in September 2007, the Ohio EPA spokesman said. “We're not aware of any additional tyres being removed since then.”

Ashtabula Township still must accomplish other tasks before the cleanup can begin, according to the spokesman. These include gaining permission from Colucci's widow, Patricia Colucci, to enter the property, and also finding a contractor to do the work.

“We hope this will be a win-win-win situation for everyone involved,” the spokesman said.

From Tire Business (A Crain publication)