A University of Nevada study recently showed that rubber-modified asphalt—which contains ground rubber, typically from end-of-life tires—absorbs 6ppd-quinone, preventing it from entering the streams and waterways of the Pacific Northwest.
And infrastructure efforts like tire and road wear-specific gutters along the berms of byways could be a stop-gap solution.
Perhaps there is an argument that tire manufacturers could have joined the critical search for an alternative to 6ppd sooner. Perhaps more could have been done at an earlier time.
As it stands today, an alternative does not exist.
What does exist—what must continue to exist—is the symbiotic relationship between all groups involved, from the tire manufacturers to the companies searching for an alternative; to the Puyallup, Yurok and Port Gamble S'Klallam tribes and the fish species themselves; and to the fishing groups seeking action and the other animals depending on the fish as a food source.
And certainly, to consumers who demand safety.
As each of the affected groups maintains their own priorities in the matter, this interim period of research and discovery puts mitigation front and center.
The interconnectivity of all species—that essential and delicate ecological balance, hard to achieve and easy to lose—depends on it.