PHOENIX — As Arizona officials move to minimize the fire risk from a stockpile of discarded tires 45 miles southwest of the Phoenix area, the cost of doing so is soaring.
Already the state is spending $50,000 a month to guard the estimated 3 million to 10 million tires sitting on state-owned land near Mobile. Now it's going a step further to mitigate the danger by agreeing to pay a company $900,000 to remove tons of wood sitting among the mounds of discarded rubber.
"In a sense, it's almost like kindling wood," said Alan Ecker, spokesman for the state Department of Administration. "We just think that it is the most significant step we can take to lessen the fire risk."
Tempe-based Environmental Response Inc. started work last week and is taking the wood to a nearby landfill because it has been soaked in a wood preservative, making it unusable for recycling purposes.
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Getting rid of the wood is important, according to state officials, because it's sitting in the center of the site, in between the stacks of tire piles as high as 20 feet. Ecker said once the wood is removed, the tires will essentially be divided in two, making it less likely that a fire would spread through all of them.
Since late last year, the Department of Administration has been grappling with what to do with the tire stockpile, which it deemed a potentially catastrophic fire hazard.
By that time, officials had already become concerned with the leaseholder, Steve Robinson, who had fallen substantially behind on his monthly payments. His tire-recycling company, Envirotech Industries International, is now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The stockpile was allowed to go unchecked as a result of several regulatory loopholes, including the fact that Robinson's lease with the Department of Administration did not place a cap on the number of tires allowed onsite.
State officials say they never imagined the stockpile would get so big, and want to terminate their agreement with Robinson as soon as possible.
