Location: Ministry Home > News > 2003 News Releases > Media Backgrounder

News Archive

Media Backgrounder

June 19, 2003

THE MINISTRY OF THE ENVIRONMENT’S ACTIONS TO ADDRESS
USED TIRES AND WEST NILE VIRUS

The Eves government is proposing that Regulation 347 (waste management) under the Environmental Protection Act be amended to provide provincial officers with the authority to impose requirements on the maintenance and operation of used tire sites. Water and debris that collect in outdoor used tires has the potential to become a breeding ground for mosquitoes that may carry West Nile virus.

The proposed changes to the regulation would require the owners of used tire sites to develop and implement a plan to address the prevention of West Nile virus if their site is found to be a potential breeding ground for mosquitoes that may carry the virus.

Amendments are required to provide clear authority to impose management requirements on a used tire site to decrease the risk of people catching West Nile virus.

Under the proposed changes, provincial officers could do a local risk assessment of a used tire site in partnership with the local medical officer of health, using the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care’s West Nile Virus Preparedness and Prevention Plan for Ontario.

If a health risk associated to West Nile virus is then determined, the provincial officer would require the person responsible for the site to prepare a West Nile virus management plan within five days. This plan would describe the measures that would be taken for the prevention or control of mosquito-borne disease, including those identified by the medical officer of health or provincial officer. The site-specific plan would set out an implementation schedule, and the owner of the site would be required to implement the plan within the time line identified. A record would be made of both the measures taken and the effectiveness of the measures taken, and would be kept for two years.

If the owner of the site did not comply with these requirements, the ministry could then order the owner to remove used tires from the site, or take other appropriate measures to address the health risk.

The proposed amendments to the regulation have been posted to the Environmental Bill of Rights Registry for a 30-day public comment period.

What Regulation 347 (General Waste Management - used tire provisions) currently does

Regulation 347 (Section 6) establishes the regulatory requirements for used tire management. The current regulation requires sites with 5,000 or more tire units to obtain a Certificate of Approval from the Ministry of the Environment. Used tire sites with less than 5,000 tires units do not require a Certificate of Approval.

Right now, clean ups can only be required to the legal tire storage limit of the site. In other words, the ministry can only order the owners of the site to clean up to the number of tires the site is allowed to have. Because no Certificate of Approval is required for used tire sites storing less than 5000 tires, no authority exists to address sites with less than 5,000 tires.

Recent Ontario actions to clean up used tire sites

On June 3, 2003, the Ministry of the Environment took strong action by ordering the owners of nine used tire sites to remove illegally stored tires from their sites, and by beginning an inspection blitz of used tires sites using its Environmental SWAT Team. These sites do not have a valid Certificate of Approval from the Ministry of the Environment, or were out of compliance with their Certificate of Approval conditions.

As part of this action, the ministry issued an order against the owners of the Otterwood tire site in Norwich Township to expeditiously remove all tires from the site. Local health authorities have indicated the need to clean up this site because of concerns about the possible spread of the West Nile virus.

There are eight other tire sites with illegal tire stockpiles that the Ministry of the Environment has ordered to clean up. These used tire sites are: Dom’s Auto Wreckers in the Municipality of Clarington; the Erie-Vu Trailer Park in Elgin County; the Havelock tire site in Havelock-Belmont-Methune Township; the Albert Helmer tire site in Norfolk County; the Bill Lane tire site in the Municipality of Southwest Middlesex; the Minden tire site in the Township of Minden Hills; the Teefy tire site in the City of Kawartha Lakes; and Uxbridge Auto Wreckers in the Township of Uxbridge.

On June 13, 2003, the Ministry of the Environment also issued an order against the owners of Casboro Industries in Brampton to remove illegally stockpiled tires from their site.

The ministry issued a request for proposals (RFP), which will enable MOE to contract for clean up of illegally stockpiled tires at the nine sites in the event of non-compliance by the owners. The RFP also includes the Casboro Industries site and one other site, totaling 11 potential clean up sites. The one other site included in the RFP does not have a ministry order issued against it (as of June 19, 2003).

The ministry has set aside $1 million that will be used to clean up these used tire sites should the owners of the sites not comply with their order. The ministry can seek cost recovery through orders to recover costs from the owners of sites cleaned up by the province.

The government’s actions to address used tires also include a formal request by the Minister of the Environment in March 2003 to have Waste Diversion Ontario (WDO) develop a waste diversion program for all used tires in the province. At that time, the minister also asked WDO to consider establishing a plan to address used tires stockpiled across the province.

– 30 –

Contact:

Amanda Kusick
Minister’s Office
(416) 314-5454

John Steele
Communications Branch
Ministry of the Environment
(416) 314-6666