RICHMOND, Va. (Oct. 20)—The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has issued bids to let some $3 million in contracts to finish the cleanup of scrap tire piles across the state, according to a DEQ release.
The effort, called "Operation Clean Sweep," will begin in November and continue through March 2006, rolling out through various regions of the commonwealth. A three-year increase on the scrap tire fees on new retail tires, from 50 cents to $1, is paying for the program.
There are an estimated 342 tire piles containing some 3 million tires remaining in Virginia, according to the DEQ; previous efforts have removed more than 17 million tires since 1993, it said.