Staff Photo by Dan Henry
Codes enforcement officer Randy Ridge examines an East Lake residence where he said mosquitoes breeding in hundreds of tires present a health hazard to the surrounding neighbors.

Chattanooga is trying to “go green,” but state and local officials say there are some big, black piles of tires in the way.

Used tires, which can be labor-intensive and expensive to haul away, have become a noticeable problem in some areas of the city, said Anthony Sammons, deputy administrator for the Chattanooga Department of Neighborhood Services and Community Development.

The tires are more than unsightly. They also can be a health hazard, he said.

“Water can be retained in those tires, and it can attract mosquitoes and cause public health problems,” he said. “It’s one of the things we have to be mindful of.”

Neighborhood Services intervened recently when several East Lake residents complained that Alan Holt of 4005 15th Ave. had collected an entire yard full of tires over the past several months.

“I can’t even take my 8-month-old baby outside because the mosquitoes are so bad,” said Mr. Holt’s next-door neighbor, Annamarie Ising. “And it looks really bad. There are tires everywhere.”

Neighborhood Services has cited Mr. Holt for violating the city’s litter code four times since May 23, according to Chattanooga City Court records. Each violation comes with a $50 fine plus court costs, totaling $134.25 each time.

Mr. Holt has an Aug. 9 court date, records show.

Last week, hundreds of tires were stacked more than 5 feet high in the yard. Some tires, jumbled with other debris, were in the driveway. By the end of the week, it appeared there were fewer tires, and a man identifying himself as a relative of Mr. Holt said cleanup was under way.

No one could provide any more information about the situation, the man said.

Hamilton County Sessions Court records show Mr. Holt has been charged with criminal trespass twice for continuing to live in the 15th Avenue house after it was condemned in December 2007. He was unavailable both Thursday and Friday, according to the relative, who added that Mr. Holt been advised by an attorney not to comment.

Tire dealers are supposed to ensure their used rubber goes to an approved recycling facility, said Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation spokeswoman Meg Lockhart — and by and large, they do.

But TDEC has cleaned up more than 70 illegal tire dumps statewide over the last decade, Ms. Lockhart said, including one over the past year on the Cumberland Mountain Trail in Chattanooga, where the state found mixed debris that included about 1,000 scrap tires.

Dealers often hire a third party to haul away used tires. Officials believe the illegal dumping begins when those individuals accept money but don’t uphold their end of the deal, Mr. Sammons said.

“We think they may be trying to pick up some tires to make some money on the side, but they may have problems disposing of them,” he said.

Whole tires have not been accepted at the city landfill off Birchwood Pike since 1999, according to Jerry Stewart, Chattanooga’s waste resources director.

The city’s refuse collection centers will take only four passenger tires per person, per day, according to Mr. Sammons.

Most tire dealers will choose a private company that contracts with the county for tire hauling to ensure their refuse gets to an approved location, said Tommy Thaxton of Best One Tire & Service of Chattanooga on Rossville Boulevard.

That company, Liberty Tire Recycling, takes the tires to a plant near Atlanta, where they are converted to decorative mulch and alternative fuels for coal plants, he said.

Individual counties get tire collection and recycling grants to support this process, funded by the $1.35 disposal fee collected by dealers for each new tire sold, said County Support Services Superintendent Alan Knowles.

The Hamilton County Transfer Station on Standifer Gap Road also accepts large numbers of tires directly from dealers and from the public, Mr. Knowles said. The facility will accept 30 tires in a calendar year from any individual for free, Mr. Knowles said, after which a $1 fee per tire is charged.

“A buck per tire is a deal,” he said, noting that recycling costs range from 75 cents to about $3.50 per tire, depending on its weight. “This is designed to be a win-win for everyone.”

Unfortunately, Ms. Lockhart said, no one knows who is following the dumping rules and who is not because there is no statutory authority requiring tire haulers to be registered.

“There has been discussion of a program to register tire haulers like in some other states,” she explained in an e-mail, “but enforcement is difficult and registration would require additional staff to identify, locate and register the haulers and provide enforcement actions for violations.”

For that reason, she encourages the public to report any potential violations.

“Because most tire sites are openly visible, it is important that citizens help the department’s inspectors by reporting sites they find,” she said.

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