ADEM Cleans Up Tires

July 11, 2008

Pre cleanup

LEE COUNTY, Ala. (WTVM)--Millions of scrap tires litter the state of Alabama each year posing a huge health risk. The Alabama department of environmental management is on a mission to clean up scrap tire dumps one tire at a time.

"When we moved here, there were tires hiding in the woods and we didn't even know that we owned them" Rebecca Crestwell said. The home owner bought her house last year only to find out a fire risk and health hazard were buried under vegetation in her backyard.

"We couldn't walk out in our yard, your constantly putting on mosquito repellent and it was embarrassing when people were coming over" Crestwell said.

ADEM Lee Country Tire Cleanup

The family soon learned a thousand tires, piled behind their home, was a massive breeding ground for mosquitoes and a major health hazard if they caught on fire.

But a new program headed up by ADEM is helping innocent families, who had nothing to do with dumping the tires, clean up their land.

"Each individual, when they buy a new tire in the state of Alabama, they pay an additional dollar and it goes to ADEM and this past year we collected nearly 4 million dollars to do this type of program," Sen. Ted Little said.

ADEM Lee County Tire Cleanup

After 2 days and 37-thousand dollars of state support, a littered landscape was brought back to life.

"This is truly a solution, an answer to a very real hazard that a lot of home owners deal with," Trey Glen, Director of ADEM said.

Thanks to the scrap tire program, the state put up thirty-seven thousand dollars needed to clean up the littered landscape. "We are able to sit on our porch, we can walk to our car, It's a lot better it's a whole different place, it's a great program," Crestwell said.

One scrap tire dump being recovered in Alabama contains as much as six million tires, enough to outfit 750-thousands cars.