Nebraska scrap tire business works to tame mountain of tires

ALVO, Neb. (AP) — The massive flammable mountain of scrap tires that had grown to more than twice the size allowed under state environmental rules in a small eastern Nebraska town now appears to be in compliance with the rules.

The Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy said a report released last week that B-Rose Tire Recycling of Alvo had made significant progress in coming into compliance with a Sept. 1 deadline to bring its inventory below 160,000 passenger tire equivalents, according to the Omaha World-Herald.

In April, the business signed a consent agreement with state regulators to drastically reduce its pile of shredded tires or face fines or other sanctions. By the middle of last year, the businesses pile of tires in the town halfway between Lincoln and Omaha had grown to as much as 323,228 passenger tire equivalents.

B-Rose fell short of benchmarks in the agreement for July and August 1, but after a warning letter from the state agency on Aug. 9, B-Rose reported hauling out 123,176 passenger tire equivalents to the landfill during August, which exceeded the number of tires hauled out in the months of May, June and July combined.

Officials at the State Fire Marshal’s office said Wednesday that they haven’t yet conducted an inspection to determine if the business had created fire lanes for emergency vehicles between the tire piles.

When contacted Wednesday, Beth Ann Rose, one of the co-owners of the scrap tire operation, said only that “everything’s good. Thank you for calling.”