Texas agency hires La. scrap tire recycler to clean up 30 million-tire site

ATLANTA, Texas (March 17)—The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has signed Merrick Construction Co., Cottonport, La., to a $5 million contract to clean up the 30 million-tire Gibson site in northeast Texas. Engineer Bud Gibson started the 150-acre site in 1991, but declared bankruptcy nine years later after the Texas legislature repealed the state´s scrap tire abatement law. The contract calls for Merrick Construction to haul away at least 60 percent of the tires for recycling, and use the rest to fill in an old iron mine with a 50-50 mix of scrap rubber and dirt in a land reclamation project.