Officials Losing Fight to Curb Tire Dumping

Law enforcement officials hoped to send a strong message last month when they successfully prosecuted a 22-year-old Pacoima man for dumping hundreds of tires in locations around the San Fernando Valley.

But even as they were declaring victory against David Valencia Peralta, who pleaded guilty to three counts of illegally dumping tires in commercial quantities--a state penal code violation--officials conceded that they were losing the larger battle to keep tires out of the open spaces of Southern California.

“There certainly is a problem with illegal dumping,” city attorney spokesman Mike Qualls said last month.

“Unfortunately there are not a lot of prosecutions because it’s difficult to catch these guys.”

Under state law, anyone who discards a small quantity of tires is subject to a maximum $200-per-tire fine for littering.

Most consumers have their tires changed by commercial garages, which then have to get rid of them. In most cases these garages either dispose of them themselves in legal landfills, paying $2 a tire for the privilege, or they hire independent contractors to haul them away.

A few of the contractors, officials said, have been dumping the tires in places ranging from city alleys to pristine canyons to avoid paying landfill fees. This dumping is a misdemeanor punishable by a minimum $300 fine and/or jail time.

Before Peralta was arrested, he and two teenage accomplices were spotted dumping hundreds of tires at locations in Panorama City and Pacoima. After three months of surveillance, Peralta was arrested after he was pulled over in an empty U-Haul truck on a Pacoima street, city attorney officials said.

With 10 million registered vehicles in Southern California, it’s easy to see how the problem of tire dumping can get out of hand.

“It’s disheartening if you love the outdoors,” said Scott Mathes, executive director of the California Environmental Project, a nonprofit group that cleans up illegal dumping grounds. “It’s like someone started an instant junkyard in the middle of nature.”

Mathes described scenes of tires half buried in streams, wedged between rocks or wrapped around small trees that grew up through their centers.

Tires can be harmful for a number of other reasons. Made from rubber, they can fuel long-burning, toxic fires. In addition, water can accumulate around rims and act as a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other pests.

The California Environmental Project pulled more than 5,000 tires from La Tuna Canyon in 1991, Mathes said. All told, the project’s members have removed 25,000 tires from undeveloped areas throughout Los Angeles County.

Meanwhile, officials say the amount of illegal dumping in city neighborhoods doubled from 1990 to 1995.

The problem got so bad last year that the city received a one-time, $30,000 grant from the California Integrated Waste Management Board to pick up and recycle tires.

But Mathes said the government ought to go beyond one-time fixes. The government ought “to cover the cost to dump tires or mandate recycling.”

Ideally, he said, government should build a partnership with the private sector and come up with a way for consumers to receive payment for discarding tires properly.