Are they authorities coming up with estimates of contaminants/pollutants released from the fire and control efforts.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/568/5517924.html

It does seem that ivestigations in different areas of concern are underway.

The Watertown locals are concerned about the water from their wells. I believe that the Wisconsin DNR has already begun to analyze well water for contamination from the tire fire. I'm not sure about the effect of the smoke on vegetation, like corn fields, and if the corn can still be used to feet cattle.

Good news, the fire was declared out on Sunday, 7-24-05. I have not seen any reports on the effects of the pollution from the fire. Some research into the use of "crumb rubber" in hot asphalt roadbuilding came up with conflicting results. There are examples of crumb rubber/asphalt giving superior results, and lasting about twice as long as conventional asphalt, such as a test section in Winslow, Arizona. But roadbuilding industry managers are dead set against a government mandate, and they are not in favor of crumb rubber as an ingredient of asphalt paving material.

Too bad they had to have a subsidy - and didn't go into all the other possibilities for using crumb rubber: floor tiles; doormats; playground pads (under swings etc); mulching circles (mats for around trees & shrubs) and strips; buckets; planters' pots; and curbs [or is it curbing? or some other word?] - those long raised bumps used in parking lots as tire-stops or as speed-enforcers; and on and on. Once upon a time, there was available a really good lawn edging made of shredded tires (properly designed with a flange for the mower), I didn't get it then and I've been sorry ever since; now I can't locate a manufacturer.

So roadbuilders don't want to use rubber crumbs in paving public roads - is there some reason it wouldn't be suitable for parking lots? or even for driveways? Sheesh, why not make interlocking paver segments that when put together would be suitable for driveways or sidewalks -- DIY and priced for the homeowner. I mean, why depend on a subsidy when one could get cash for a product?

From what I have read, the problem with crumb rubber as an additive to asphalt paving material, is that the crumb rubber actually absorbs considerable hot tar, the "glue" that holds the aggregate together. The result is that a given quantity of hot asphalt mix, containing crumb rubber, will be more expensive than a standard mix. You have to add extra tar to make up for what is absorbed by the crumb rubber, and this makes the mix more expensive.

Eric - Well, for goodness' sake! That's all that stopped them from using r-crumb?! They should have set up a reward and the first guy/gal to figure out how to get around that problem wins $$$. If Goodyear could figure out the vulcanization process in 1843, surely somewhere there's a bright light who can figure out a cheap way to glue crumbs for a lasting surface! Ummm, bet it's not going to be tar. Technology's great but imagination is greater.

Eric, Are you familiar with recycling asphalt from roadways by adding enrichments to use it for repaving? Is this being done nowadays? Also, if they can recycle the stuff, would rubber in it make it all the harder to reuse?

In Oswego, NY there are 15 million tires in a pile that covers 24 acres and is 75 feet tall at its highest. It will cost 18 mill.dollars and take 2 years to clean up. They will be shredded and then used to build road embankments throughout the state. The really neat thing, they are putting up many bat houses to eat the mosquitos breeding in the tires.

Elease, I really don't know the environmental implications of using shredded tires to build road embankments. There has to be water run-off when it rains, and when the snow melts in the spring. The state will have to monitor the run-off and see what they find.

Wayne, I have seen a paving machine used in Wisconsin, on Hwy 22, back in the late 1990's, that recycled asphalt pavement and reapplied the recycled material back down on the roadbed. It was huge, and it moved very slowly. It picked up and ground the old pavement, heated it, and presumably mixed in some fresh tar. Then it put down the recycled pavement, all in one continuous process. Would crumb rubber interfere with this procedure? Perhaps someone with more expertise than I have will respond.

Tire recycling sounds good on the surface, but it's masking the real issues. Although there are no standard definitions for the word recycling, I'd prefer not to use it to describe materials that loose quality and value like tires do when allegedly recycled. Reprocessed would be a more fitting term. You cannot turn a tire in to another tire, instead it is ground up and the remains used for various things like garden mulch or fillers to bulk out other materials. Since these secondary products have minimal, if any ability to be processed again, and the rubber itself was allready hard to reprocess as a tire and is now further degraded, once worn out these items will go straight back in to the non-recyclable waste stream. Here they will cause just as much environmental damage as the original tires would have if they were throw away in the first place. Tire recycling is waste taking the scenic route to the landfill. Further still, this reprocessing of tires makes it more economically viable to make this waste as it now has a value, rather than do something useful like reduce the number of tires being made in the first place.

The reason the tire industry is working hard to reprocess tires, or as they call it recycle, is because it helps hide the environmental and financial damage they cause when thrown away. Instead of consumers seeing a tire mountain and reading grim statistics about the number of tires thrown away or the damage they cause each year, they can read a nice eco-friendly statement about how X percent of tires are now recycled and that tires are a nice industy. After all, we're not throwing away millions of tons of tires any more, we're now throwing away loads of garden mulch, fillers and asphalt, which will somehow be conveniantly detached from the tire industry. *POP* in a cloud of magic smoke, marketing and a bit of deception, the offending tires are gone!

As for turning tires in to asphalt, aparently it does use a lot more tar to bind the mixture, but it also creates a much stronger longer lasting road surface, plus it's more skid resistant and safer. Long term the safety improvements and savings from not having to replace it as soon would make it the sensible choice, but here in the UK, as in many places, road works are contracted out. Why would a contractor spend more money to install a better surface, only to be rewarded with not being called back as soon to replace it?

With regard to the original fire, a recent newxpaper article described the scene at the time the fire started. A front end loader, diesel powered, was being used to move a deep pile of crumb rubber. The loader was sinking into the loose rubber, up to the axles. A small fire was noticed at this time, and efforts to put it out were not successful. No one actually saw the fire begin to smolder, but those at the scene believe the front end loader was responsible, probably the hot exhaust.

sounds likely

Last night while towing our boat home the hitch came undone, the saftey chain was snapped off ( we hit some rough roads) and the boat was beingdragged behind us and it was very hot, sparks etc so hot one couldnt touch the metal of the hitch...I could see how easy it would of caught on fire as it rest on the tire underneath the car, so it wouldnt surprize me that it started so innocently.

Shredded tires are being used on playgrounds under swings and things instead of mulch bark.Also its used under turf on football fields.Its better then burning for power.Every year they have a river clean up here. Every year the same amount of tires are removed from the river.

Many playgrounds that did lay down shredded tires have removed them because during the hot summer days those tires produced a stench that was not pleasant and it was found had unhealthy VOC's. Where shredded tires are being used on football fields things such as cadmium and lead are being found on the skin of the players that make contact with those surfaces.
If proper filters are used in the power plants that is probably the best method od disposal of those used tires.

Use the tires to build efficient underground housing!

Here is a link that might be useful: Earthship

I was surprised to find this thread still active, but then I realized that since we still generate large numbers of used tires every year, the problem of how to dispose of them remains relevant.

Absolutely Eric,

Here's a personal site of a variant on the Earthship design. It uses tire "bales", where the tires are compressed and wrapped into 2'x6'x6' or so. Apparently there is a commercial operation that bales up the tires just to save space. The owner of the site was able to get the bales for free and use them like bricks to build his house.

Using the bales of tires he was able to put up the walls in a matter of days, much quicker than if he had used rammed earth.

Check it out, its pretty neat.

Cheers,
Kyle

Here is a link that might be useful: Tire Bale House Site