Court Orders Cleanup Of Saugerties Tire Dump

Attorney General Spitzer and Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner John Cahill announced today that an Ulster County judge has ordered the removal of 600,000 tires from an illegal waste tire dump in the Quarryville section of Saugerties.

The order, issued March 8 by Ulster County Supreme Court Judge George Cobb, calls for the removal of tires from the 22-acre Tire Recycling Inc. site to begin within a month. Part of the cleanup will occur through a unique arrangement in which members of Landowners and Sportsmen Assoc. Inc., a local group, will load waste tires onto trucks and be paid a nominal fee for their community-minded effort.

"This is a tremendous, creative decision that achieves a great public good by combining state enforcement action with the efforts of committed local officials and residents," said Spitzer. "Removal of these tires will forever rid Saugerties of an environmental menace and an unhygienic eyesore."

DEC Commissioner Cahill said: "DEC staff have worked aggressively for several years to close this illegal tire dump and to ensure that it no longer threatens the people and environment of Saugerties. Now, in partnership with the Attorney General and the local community, we have a court-supported plan to clean up this hazard."

Tire Recycling Inc. owners Mark Syska and William Reinhardt operated an illegal tire recycling dump on Quarry Road without necessary DEC permits. The state closed the site in 1994.

The abandoned tire dump poses a significant environmental hazard and a severe fire risk. When burned, each tire releases 2-3 gallons of petroleum into the environment in the form of choking toxic smoke and steaming sludge that can pollute surface and groundwater sources.

In addition, stagnant water collecting inside the tires is an ideal breeding ground for swarms of mosquitoes that annually plague area residents.

Judge Cobb signed the state's proposed cleanup order linking two unrelated tire dump enforcement actions in an inventive and effective approach to resolving the Tire Recycling Inc. problem.

Under the order, Richard Evans, the owner of Casings Inc., a tire recycling company, will provide 300 45-foot long trucks to haul tires from Tire Recycling Inc. to his licensed recycling plants in the mid-Hudson Valley. Evans is paying for the trucks and the hauling as partial payment of the state's cost in putting out a fire at his Catskill tire storage facility in 1989.

Evans will provide crews to load 50 of the trucks, each of which can haul about 1,300 tires. The remaining trucks will be loaded by up to 250 volunteers from a local sportsman's group which will be paid 10 cents to 15 cents from a state fund for each tire trucked away. Money to pay the volunteers comes from funds collected earlier from Syska and Reinhardt.

Removal of tires will occur Monday-Saturday during normal business hours and is expected to take three years to complete.