Lawmakers reviewed with some apprehension but no objection Monday changes to state environmental regulations concerning the management of used tires.
A new regulation would take parts of an existing one, add to it and alter it to implement Act 317 of 2017, a 36-page act sponsored by Rep. Lanny Fite, R-Benton. After financial woes and dumps of hundreds of thousands of tires at some regional tire districts that received state funding, Act 317 sought to make tire districts and tire dealers more accountable and transparent in their operations to the state by requiring business plans and electronic manifest systems that track tires.
On Monday, state legislators on the joint Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee reviewed the proposed regulation. The joint Administrative Rules and Regulations subcommittee will vote July 17 on whether to send the regulation back to the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission, the state's environmental rule-making body, for final adoption.
Two state representatives asked a few questions of Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality officials but none took objection to considering the regulation "reviewed."
Rep. John Payton, R-Wilburn, asked whether the regulation considered the remaining useful life of some tires that are removed from cars.
"I still hold the best way to recycle a tire is to wear it out," said Payton, who has worked in auto sales. If tire districts are having to deal with break-ins at collection sites -- as the White River Regional Solid Waste Management District reported to the department -- that's a sign some tires with miles left on them are being tossed out, he said.
Michael Grappe, director of special projects at the department and a former solid waste district director, said the regulation would allow a market to develop for the recycling and reuse of tires and that nothing in the law disallows reselling used tires.
Payton suggested a grading system for anyone handling tires to determine if tires have life left and then get those tires back onto the market.
"Many low-income Arkansans depend on those tires," he said.
Selling used tires to people instead of discarding them and selling new tires to someone would reduce the problems posed by tire storage and having more tires than can be recycled, he said.
Grappe told Payton he would take Payton's comment back to the department and reach back out to Payton personally on the consideration of tires' remaining useful life.
White River district officials told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette they are still talking with the department about a way to staff its collection sites and limit access to them, which the department says is necessary to ensure tires are tracked under Act 317's tire manifest system.
Rep. Jack Ladyman, R-Jonesboro, asked about when professional engineers are required to sign off on plans for tire processing facilities and asked whether sending tires to a landfill was still allowed.
It's allowed under certain conditions, said Tammie Hynum, manager of the department's new Tire Accountability Program. Landfilling is not prohibited for up to a three-year period, at which point prohibition would be up for discussion and re-evaluation.
Tires don't disintegrate quickly, which has prompted efforts globally to reuse tires in some way. In Arkansas, they are mostly used for tire-derived fuel. In Arizona, the state has allowed roads, including interstates and highways, to be constructed using rubberized asphalt made with tires.
Metro on 07/03/2018