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May 11, 2006 Fire site in Nitro targeted by st= ate

· Owner wa= s told to remove tires

Six months ago, the state Department of Environmental Protection filed= a felony charge against the operator of a Nitro area warehouse full of tires that caught fire last week.

Ricky B. Handley, whose address is listed as the warehouse on the crim= inal complaint, was charged in Putnam County with opera= ting a waste tire processing facility without a permit. That charge was dismisse= d in January, but DEP officials may file it again in Kanawha County, spokeswoman Jessica Greathouse said.

On Nov. 16, DEP inspector Richard Hackney found that Handley’s company, U.S. Tire Recovery, had unloaded and stored large numbers of was= te tires, according to the criminal complaint. Hackney noted that the company had accumulated more than 1,000 waste tires.

Putnam Circuit Judge O.C. Spaulding dismissed the charge against Handl= ey without prejudice, which meant it could be filed again. Spaulding said his court did not have jurisdiction because the alleged offense occurred in <= st1:place w:st=3D"on">Kanawha County. The warehouse is near the Kanawha-Putnam county line.

Spaulding had a copy of the order forwarded to Kanawha County Prosecut= or Bill Charnock. Charnock<= /span> said Wednesday he could not confirm or deny if his office had launched an investigation.

The DEP, the state Fire Marshal’s Office, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Nitro police and fire departments and the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Department are investigating the May 4 fire at the warehouse, w= hich took 24 hours, more than 100 firefighters and millions of gallons of wate= r to stop.

The cause of the fire is still undetermined, the Fire Marshal’s Office said.

The DEP estimates that 40,000 to 50,000 tires were in the warehouse wh= en the fire started. Investigators are trying to determine whether U.S. Tire Recovery accepted more waste tires after DEP ordered Handley to stop doin= g so on Nov. 18, Greathouse said.

“As part of our investigation, we are still considering filing criminal charges,” she said. “The bottom line is: Whether that was a waste processing facility or not, it would have never been able to accumulate that many tires.

Anyone convicted of accumulating or disposing of more than 1,000 tires faces one to five years in prison and must clean up and properly dispose = of the tires or reimburse the state for cleanup costs. They can also face a = fine of $50,000 a day for each day of continued violation.

Since Handley was charged last November, the DEP has exchanged a handf= ul of letters and orders with U.S. Tire and its contractors.

On Nov. 18, the DEP ordered Handley to develop a fire plan and submit a corrective action plan, including timelines for removal and proper dispos= al of the tires, within five days. The DEP also told him to stop accepting w= aste tires and send receipts each week, documenting his efforts to remove the tires, until they were completely gone.

From Dec. 15 to March 1, U.S. Tire submitted receipts that said the company removed 19,607 tires, plus another eight tons of waste tires. They were removed by permitted tire haulers, according to the company.

In December, a St. Albans company h= ired by U.S. Tire, Environmental Regulatory Services Group, asked the DEP to a= mend its order to allow U.S. Tire to process the tires on site to keep them ou= t of landfills — essentially allowing U.S. Tire to back into its proposed business model without the proper permits.

On Feb. 13, the DEP got a fire plan drawn up by ESRG. It describes U.S. Tire as a “used tire processing operation where used tires are separated into their components of sidewalls and treads. The sidewalls are transported to other businesses that reuse the materials. The treads are ground into smaller pieces then frozen. The frozen pieces are then pulver= ized and made ready for transporting.”

A month later, the DEP sent U.S. Tire’s Dennis Henderson a letter stating that the “proposed corrective action plan is unacceptable in that you propose to bring in a tire-shredding machine.”<= /p>

The letter says it’s misleading for U.S. Tire officials to state= in the present tense that the company operates a used tire processing operat= ion. “This plan may suffice should this become a permitted facility,R= 21; it reads. “Currently this site is comprised of a warehouse of tires with inadequate fire protection.”

The DEP inspector wrote that during a March 13 visit it was “obv= ious [U.S. Tire] has elected to continue its unlawful practice of processing w= aste tires without appropriate permits.” She further recommends her superiors pursue alternate enforcement actions against the company and estimates that the tire removal should be completed by no later than Apri= l 7.

Charleston attorney Andrew B. McCallister of Spilman, Thomas & Battle wrote the DEP in April= on behalf of U.S. Tire. His letter said that company officials believe “some of the delay in removing the tires and complying with the Ord= er has been due to a series of miscommunications.”

His letter states that all remaining tires should be gone from the warehouse by June 23.

McCallister said Wednesday that he was not allowed to speak to the media about the company. Handley’s phone nu= mber is unpublished, according to directory assistance.

Henderson and Brian Holdren, who both show= up on most of the correspondence for U.S. Tire, also could not be reached for comment.

Nitro Treasurer Tifney Terry said the city= has racked up about $130,000 in costs from the fire, including $110,640 for t= he fire department alone. Nitro firefighters will have to replace $23,000 in bunker gear and boots that were covered in toxins at the fire. A ladder t= ruck has at least $10,500 in damage, and a $20,000 thermal imaging camera was lost, she said.

Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper said the county would = use its catastrophic fund and public safety grants to get local fire departme= nts money to replace gear as quickly until the insurance money is straightened out. He estimated that the county had $35,000 in costs from the fire including 1,500 gallons of diesel fuel.

To contact staff writer Dave Gustafson, use e-mail or call 348-5113.