14 DAY TRIAL // Authorities from Calhoun County, South Carolina have to clean up a big mess, as a giant pile of used tires forming a 50-acre illegal open dump is threatening the environment. Apparently, the tires belong to George Fontella Brown, a 39-year-old who tried to obtain a decent profit by selling them to China.
After he realized that the market does not encourage such transactions, he gave up this plan and just abandoned the enormous pile of tires. It is so big it actually appears on Google Earth, according to Daily Mail.
Officials who will supervise the clean-up operation say the astonishing open dump is visible from space. Such an irresponsible behavior triggers various harmful consequences.
First, the 50-acre surface represents an emerging threat because it stores a significant amount of water that attracts mosquitoes. Second, if a fire starts in that area, all the tires would start burning while emitting toxic gases. The fire itself would be difficult to control and extinguish.
Tricia Johnson is the owner of Lee Tire, a company that committed its efforts in clearing up the area. According to Johnson, the tires' rightful owner wanted to sell these products across seas, but failed in his attempts and simply vanished into thin air. The tires obviously didn't follow the same path so now Brown will have to face serious accusations.
Since he didn't own a permit that would have justified his actions, he is now charged with illegal storage and disposal of solid waste. Even so, his budget won't suffer dramatic changes, as his environmental footprint is apparently worth only $475(€354.8), representing the value of the ticket he received.
Brown stored the massive pile of tires on a surface of land that belongs to Michael Keitt Jr. of Far Rockaway, New York. His contribution to the environmental degradation is quite significant, but unable to impress the authorities more than a tremendous pile recorded in the 1990s, according to County Council Chairman David Summers.
Experts say that tire dumping is an alarming yet quite common phenomenon in that area, even when local communities try to implement effective measures meant to keep the piles of waste under stricter control.
For example, most of the South Carolina enterprises take $2 out of their buyers' pockets for every new tire purchase, an amount which is supposed to support clean-up and recycling operations.
Johnson wants to defeat the tire giant, moving it piece by piece to her Florida-based facility, using up to 15 tractors to make sure that 50-acre shameful open dump will disappear in no time.