Public Management, June 1993 v75 n6 p18(2) 
                Waste tire stockpile removal. (removal of tire stockpile in 
                Scottsbluff, Nebraska) Alan R. Mueller. 
            Brief Summary: Scottsbluff, NE, was required by state regulations to 
            find a viable way of removing its tire stockpile. Since mere 
            compliance required considerable labor and was not a permanent 
            solution, the local government decided to look for other ways. 
            Full Text: COPYRIGHT International City-County Management 
            Association 1993 
            On the surface, cleaning up a landfill stockpile of 150,000 tires to 
            comply with a state fire marshall order prior to Subtitle D closure 
            deadlines seems like a logistical nightmare. Some good timing and a 
            city policy of environmental responsibility, however, has created a 
            positive solution. 
            In 1991, Scottsbluff, Nebraska, was ordered to stack its tire pile 
            in compliance with state regulations. Realizing that the labor 
            required to do this would be considerable and would not permanently 
            solve the problem, the city began to search for alternatives. As 
            plans to close the landfill were being formulated in 1992, a request 
            for proposals (RFP) was prepared seeking firms to dispose of the 
            tire stockpile. The disposal method was not specified in the RFP in 
            order to generate the greatest possible number of proposals. 
            A trucking company in Scottsbluff was awarded the disposal contract 
            in 1992. This company submitted the second lowest bid, but its 
            proposal contained the most permanent and liability-free solution. 
            Fortuitously, the schedule for disposal coincided with a Nebraska 
            Public Power District (NPPD) test burn of shredded tires, which the 
            trucking company incorporated into its bid. The tires are manually 
            loaded into 48-foot van trailers and transported to a tire shredding 
            company in Council Bluffs, Iowa, which has a separate contract with 
            NPPD to supply material for the test burn. After the tires are 
            shredded, the Council Bluffs company transports the material to the 
            Sheldon power plant in Hallam, Nebraska, where it is mixed at 5 
            percent (by weight) with coal and burned. 
            The city pays $99 per ton of tires removed, which includes loading, 
            transportation, and a disposal fee. Scottsbluff's costs are 
            partially funded by a landfill tire disposal fee and partially by 
            sanitation fund cash reserves. A $35,000 Nebraska Department of 
            Environmental Quality recycling grant also was awarded to the city 
            in December 1992. 
            The tires are transported more than 500 miles, but several benefits 
            are derived from this long-distance trek: 
            * The fire and vector hazard of a tire 
            pile is eliminated. 
            * If the tires had merely been moved to 
            another storage site, a potential liability 
            for future remediation still would 
            exist. With incineration, this liability 
            is eliminated. 
            * Smokestack emissions using the 
            shredded tire mixture are increased 
            by 2 percent and the ash has the same 
            characteristics of coal ash. 
            * Positive public relations and 
            enhanced working relationships for 
            all involved parties have been 
            achieved. 
            Tires received from Scottsbluff comprised one-third of the total 
            test burn. The test now has been completed, but tires continue to be 
            transported to the shredding company in Council Bluffs for 
            processing in anticipation of other incineration opportunities. At 
            this writing, removal from the Scottsbluff site was scheduled to be 
            completed by May 1, 1993, at which time approximately 165,000 tires 
            will have been removed and incinerated at a total cost to the city 
            of $210,000. 
            Results of Waste Tire Removal 
            Activity through February 28, 1993, was as follows: 
Number of trailer loads:   122
Total net weight:          1,850 tons
            Approximate number 
of tires:                  143,000
Total cost:                $153,885
            
             
             Article A13890622