JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (March 21)—As two scrap tire fires continued to smolder in Missouri, the state legislature considered three bills to reinstate the 50-cent scrap tire abatement fee that lapsed at the beginning of last year.
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources estimates that 750,000 tires are burning in a quarry near Bolivar, Mo., said Beth Marsala, an enforcement section chief with the agency. The local fire department in western Ray County, Mo., is letting a fire in a pile of about 20,000 tires burn itself out, she added.
Of the three bills before the legislature, only one—a bill in the General Assembly that would reimpose the fee on new tires sold in Missouri till Jan. 1, 2008, and give preference in waste tire cleanups to Missouri-based companies—has moved out of committee, Marsala said. The Missouri legislature is scheduled to adjourn May 13, she said.