Police keep finding old tires dumped in Franklin Township alleys.
Criminals approach businesses and offer to dispose of old tires for $.50 each. The businesses agree because it saves them money, then the criminals dump the tires, Franklin Township Police Chief Mike Castle said.
The business owners have not provided the police with the identities of the people hauling away the tires. Castle asks residents to call the police at 462-3333 if they spot a truck full of tires.
Besides being unsightly, old tires are dangerous. The rainwater they collect creates a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Many of the mosquitoes carry diseases including encephalitis, which causes the brain to swell, resulting in brain damage and sometimes death.
Tires also pose an environmental threat. Once they catch fire, the flames are difficult to extinguish, black smoke chokes the air and oil oozes into ground water.Liberty Tire charges $1.25 per car tire (with rims removed) for disposal. They are the only EPA-approved tire disposal business in Franklin County.
Liberty charges more to dispose of larger tires and a fee of $5 is added if a tire includes a rim, said Liberty accountant Linda Fisher.
Tires shredded at Liberty are recycled for many uses including pavement, mulch and construction back fill.
The police haul dumped tires to the shredder then pay for them to be discarded.
If the township does not clear a dump, the burden falls upon individuals to remove the tires and pay for their destruction.
Fisher said that it is not uncommon for farmers to bring tires that have been dumped in their fields.
If convicted of illegal dumping whether the offense involved one tire or 100, the penalty under Ohio law is to pay a fine of $10,000 to $25,000 and to serve two to four years in prison according to nailadumper.com.
Nail-a-dumper is the Web site for reporting illegal dumping in Franklin County.
In 2003, the most recent year found on the Ohio EPA Web site, the EPA cleared about 5,030,000 scrap tires and 1,052 tons of construction debris from illegal dumps.
