About the Proposed Tire
Incinerator
Why is it so bad to burn tires?
The proposed tire incinerator, known as the
"Meadville Power Station", in Greenwood Township, Crawford County,
Pennsylvania, would be a major source of hazardous air pollution. It
would burn 900 tons of tires a day and emit over 1300 tons of toxic
pollution each year. Many
of the substances it would release such as Sulfur Dioxide, Nitogen
Oxides, Lead, Zinc, Mercury, Phosphate, Hydrochloric Acid,
Sulfuric Acid, Benzene, Volatile Organic Compounds, Polycyclic Aromatic
Hydrocarbons, and
Dioxins and Furans are highly toxic, and many are known or suspected
carcinogens that can be extremely dangerous even at very low
levels of exposure. These substances are also known to bioaccumulate in
the fat cells of humans, fish and wildlife, building up over time and
magnifying throughout the food chain. Exposure to fine particulate
matter (PM 2.5), one of the major emissions that the facility would
produce, has been linked to respiratory problems and
diseases. The facility would also produce over 800,000 tons a year of greenhouse gasses, in the form of CO2e.
Only two stricly tire derived fuel fired
facilities are
operational in the United States. No facility in the world burns tires
on the sheer scale of this project. The facilities that do burn tires,
in much smaller amounts, have received countless complaints and have
been fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for their ongoing
emissions violations. One such facility in Modesto, California,
shut
down after a massive tire fire burned for over a month, costing the
taxpayers millions of dollars to clean up. Another facility in Ford
Heights, Illinois, went bankrupt just 10 days after opening.
Later, it
went bankrupt again after a turbine accident. Historically, facilities
that burn tires have had many serious accidents and repeated air
emission violations.
Burning tires on this scale would also produce over 100
tons of ash per day. This type of ash is often contaminated with
extremely toxic chemicals, and could be an additional source of
potential ground and water contamination if it were handled improperly.
The ash that is produced by the tire incinerator will be
trucked offsite for disposal in a landfill.
There are many benificial uses for scrap tires, including
commercial products like flooring, belts, and shoes, civil engineering
projects like rubberized asphalt, back fill and embankments, septic
drainage systems, and retaining walls, and crumb rubber products, for
use making athletic tracks, auto parts, and even new tires. With all of
the beneficial uses for scrap tires, there is absolutely no reason to
burn them.
Where will
the tires come from?
The
tire recycling industry is very strong in Pennsylvania. CRE's facility
would consume up to 36.5 million scrap tires a year. According to a
2007 Pennsylvania Joint State Government Commision study, all of
Pennsylvania's 12 million annually generated scrap tires are used by
existing industries. It even says some tire recyclers actually have to
import tires, and that they operate below capacity because of the lack
of available tires. The latest Rubber Manufacturer's Association report
also shows that nearly 100% of the scrap tires generated in
Pennsylvania reach end-use markets. The Pennsylvania Department of
Environmental Protection says that there are 2 million scrap tires in
tire piles in our state. 2 million tires would run
the
incinerator for less than a month. CRE representatives have refused to
say where they plan on getting the tires. The question remains, "Where
will the tires come from?"
What you can do?
Help CARE preserve
your environment and your
health. Write a letter to the Meadville Tribune, Record-Argus, and Erie Times-News expressing your
concern. You can also support the appeal efforts by making a donation. Click here to learn about the appeal.
Let the Greenwood Township supervisors, Meadville City Council, and the
Crawford County Commissioners know that the negative
environmental impact of a tire burning facility would far outweigh any
economic benefit it would create. Encourage council members to review
the human health impacts of the proposed emission
from Crawford Renewable
Energy tire burning facility, and explore all legal options under
federal Environmental Protection Agency rules to intervene and stop the
building of this plant. Ask your employer to get involved in this fight
for clean air and water.
These
are the conclusions we have come to after looking at the available
information. We urge everyone to examine the publicly
available
documents and
come to their own conclusions.
Those documents can be found at the Meadville Public Library
or by
appointment at the Nortwest Regional Office of the
Pennsylvania
Department of Environmental Protection. CARE also maintains
scans
of some of the documents in the Resources
section of our website. By educating ourselves about
this
project, and the emissions it would produce, we all can decide for
ourselves whether we want it in our community.
About CARE
Contact
CARE
CARE's goal is to preserve the health and prosperity of the community
and the environment, and protect our natural resources.
CARE's current
environmental campaign is to
stop Crawford Renewable Energy from building a tire burning facility in
Greenwood Township, Crawford County, PA
