Kelso tire pile is on state's most wanted list
Friday, February 10, 2006 6:43 AM PST
By Amy M. E. Fischer
Printable version
E-mail this articleA 30-year-old tire pile in Kelso ranks 31st on the state's list of 54 illegal tire dumping sites, according to a Department of Ecology report.
The report, released in December, was based on a statewide survey of tire piles last summer following the Legislature's orders to assess the scope of the dump sites. A bill passed in the 2005 legislative session requires that $1-per-tire fee be charged on retail sales of all new vehicle tires. The money collected will be used, in part, to clean up the piles.
In addition to the number of tires, dump sites were evaluated on their proximity to surface water, schools and towns, and then ranked in order of clean-up priority. The worst scrap pile in the state is at Klickitat County's Goldendale Tire Shredders, which has an estimated 2.1 million tires, according to the report.
By contrast, Kelso's pile along the Coweeman River at the south end of Grade Street has roughly 3,500 tires, the report stated.
"This was a tough one because a lot of (tires) were buried," said Rob Roberts, an environmental chemist for the Issaquah firm G-Logics, the environmental contractor the DOE hired to estimate the size of each pile using aerial photographs.
The Rhinehart dump site, named for Clarence Rhinehart, the Kelso man who admits to dumping thousands of tires along the riverbank in the early 1970s with the intention of building a marina, would take roughly 3 days and cost perhaps $23,000 to haul the tires to the shredder, the DOE's report said.
The DOE this year is asking the state for $4 million to tackle tire cleanups, Martin said. The Legislature needs to settle various policy issues related to the statewide cleanup project, such as whether the state has the option of seeking cost reimbursement from property owners if the DOE does the work for them, Martin said.
Kelso's nuisance abatement officer, Don Harris, said Monday he hadn't heard about the DOE report, but he thinks the agency's estimate of 3,500 tires is too high. According to Harris, the Seattle businessman who owns the 101 Haussler Rd. property, Lewis Ong, has removed about half the tires in the last several months.
The neighbor across the street disputes that, however.
"Nothing has happened," said 80-year-old Frank Ruth, who first began complaining to the city about the tire dump in 1974. "I hope something happens. But they're still there, and they're probably going to stay there."
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