Tuesday, April 09, 2002

Who'll be left holding the bag? Likely, taxpayers

"EPA has no current plans to hold the parties that sent tires to the tire dump liable," a spokesman said.

By TIM THORNTON
THE ROANOKE TIMES

   When W.J. Keeling began hauling tires to his south Roanoke County property nearly 30 years ago, he paid retailers for the privilege. As times and technology changed, tires changed from commodity to refuse, and tire dealers paid Keeling to haul used tires away. Some people think those tire dealers should help clean up the mess they helped create.

    "If I were one of those businesses, I would be shredding my records," Southwest Roanoke resident Katherine Overholser said. "Mr. Keeling was certainly at fault, but he certainly couldn't have put the tires in the dump if he didn't have any tires."

    Although Department of Environmental Quality records list four tire retailers that dealt with Keeling years after his operation became illegal, those companies apparently have nothing to fear. Federal law allows the Environmental Protection Agency to hold those companies at least partially responsible for the cleanup, according to DEQ regional director Rick Weeks, but the EPA apparently won't do that.

    "EPA has no current plans to hold the parties that sent tires to the tire dump liable," EPA spokesman David Sternberg said.

    It's not clear who will ultimately pay to clean up the 38-year-old tire dump. Roanoke County and the DEQ tried for years to hold Keeling responsible. Keeling says his agreement with the county and DEQ make them responsible. The EPA has committed $2 million to the short-term cleanup, but it's made no decisions about the long term.

    Who will pay to clean up after the tire fire? The short answer seems to be taxpayers. The DEQ had allocated $1.4 million to a plan that would have cleaned up the tires before they burned. The EPA said last week it will spend up to $2 million on the first phase of the cleanup.

    State law says that anyone who owns a tire pile or the land below it is responsible for any damage caused by the fire and "any waste or chemical constituents released into the environment" because of the fire.

    In January 1984, while 9 million tires were burning in Frederick County, the state Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste Management wrote to Keeling about his then-20-year-old tire pile.

    "It has come to our attention," agency director William Gilley wrote, "that your property is being used as a collection and storage point for discarded automobile tires. In view of the massive fire in Frederick County, this is to advise you that you are liable for any adverse impact this tire storage may have on the surroundings."

    Keeling says that's not true anymore. He signed an agreement with the DEQ and the county last November that includes this sentence: "Neither the Owner, his family, his heirs, nor his assigns shall be responsible for the costs, fees or expenses for any waste tire remediation activities under this Agreement."

    Keeling has long been suspicious of the government's intentions. "They aimed to take this land over here on the cleanup bill," he said before the fire began. So the agreement also says neither the county nor the DEQ will put a lien on Keeling's property to pay for the cleanup.

    But that was an agreement to clean up millions of tires - not the combination of tires, ash, wire and chemical runoff that's at the site now. And the EPA, which is not a party to that agreement, is involved now. Sternberg wouldn't say directly that Keeling's property is at risk, but he did say that the EPA's usual procedure is to notify the responsible party of the cleanup's cost. If they don't pay, he said, the EPA will "pursue cost recovery through the courts."

    In the case of the Frederick County fire, the landowners' assets were put in the control of a court-appointed receiver who used them to help pay for the cleanup. The bill on that project has topped $10 million.

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