It’s time to clean up old tire dumps

Two million. That’s how many tires are dumped at 11150 Applewhite Road on the South Side of San Antonio, within 1 mile of Spicewood Park Elementary, Texas A&M-San Antonio and Palo Alto College.

The tires are in massive heaps over an area the equivalent of more than seven football fields. If they ever caught fire, they would burn for months, releasing plumes of cyanide and carbon monoxide. The tires collect rainwater, creating breeding grounds for Zika and West Nile virus. According to the EPA, a stray tire is the “ideal nursery for mosquito larvae.”

Originally, there were more than 4.5 million tires at the Applewhite dump. They were ordered removed in 2002 — and eventually, about half were removed and recycled until the owner abandoned the site in 2005. The property was sold in 2009, and clean-up efforts never resumed.

For years afterward, no progress was made cleaning up the site. When sued, the new owners failed to appear in court. When ruled against in court, they ignored the judgment and only corresponded through their attorney. Meanwhile, they continued to rack up fines and back taxes.

This month, Copart Inc. committed to buy the Applewhite tire dump and finally clean up the property. I worked with Copart and other stakeholders to make this sale happen, and if they hadn’t stepped up, it’s likely the tires would still be on the South Side in the future as the owners continued to ignore orders from the state.

Several other tire dumps still exist in Houston and El Paso. Clearly, Texas does not have all the tools it needs to address this problem.

Last legislative session, I co-authored Senate Bill 570 with Rep. Armando Walle to increase the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s regulatory power over illegal tire dumping. Tire dumps are a huge problem across the state, especially as suburban development sprawls into previously industrial areas. Tires can and should be recycled.

Unfortunately, SB 570 was vetoed by Gov. Greg Abbott in June. While the governor’s concerns about over-regulation are noted, the problem of the Applewhite tire dump shows how difficult it can be to clean up millions of old tires even with the backing of TCEQ, the attorney general and the courts.

I’m thankful that a local business, Copart, has stepped up to clean the dump. However, in the future, entities that illegally dump tires shouldn’t be able to discharge their obligation to clean up their messes onto others. Next legislative session, I plan on working with the governor and my colleagues to find compromise on the issue of old tires.

We need to get these tires out of our cities and into recycling plants before they become a public health emergency.