The Cupertino Courier

Citizens Air Watch gains some support from state agency

By Pam Marino

Cupertino-based West Valley Citizens Air Watch and other environmental groups scored a victory in Sacramento recently when a waste management board listed recycling tires, rather than burning them, as a top priority in the state.

The California Waste Management Board (CWMB), under the umbrella of the state Environmental Protection Agency, has been considering tire burning as a way to get rid of an estimated 30 million used tires disposed of statewide each year.

Although the board's resolution passed on Jan. 28 listed recycling tires into retreads and adding tire crumbs to rubberized roads and products as important, part of the resolution still included burning tires as a viable solution.

"At the last minute they basically switched resolutions," Air Watch member Donna Ghoul said last week. "We felt like it was a partial victory."

Ghoul and 11 other members traveled from Cupertino to Sacramento on Jan. 28 to protest an original resolution that gave burning tires a more solid recommendation.

Air Watch members have now traveled twice to the state capital to convince the CWMB--which creates policy that dictates how the government and industry reduce waste--that burning tires will raise levels of toxins and particulates in the state's pollution.

To Air Watch, what's at stake is the health of Cupertino residents, and that of others in the Santa Clara Valley. The group formed two years ago to fight a proposal by Kaiser Cement, located just over the Cupertino border at the end of Stevens Creek Boulevard, to use tire chunks as a replacement fuel for the coal it burns to make cement. Last August Kaiser abandoned its plans to seek a permit to burn tires after a series of sometimes turbulent community meetings.

As part of its reasoning for supporting tire burning, the CWMB used a report it commissioned stating that tire burning does not raise health risks to citizens.

"Looking through it, we were pretty amazed at how little it said scientifically," Ghoul said. Air Watch's analysis of the report, by members who are scientists, found "glaring mistakes, even mistakes in arithmetic," she said.

The group sent the report to seven research scientists around the country asking for comments. "They were aghast at the quality," according to Ghoul.

In addition to pointing out mistakes in the board's report, Air Watch members also pointed out other studies that show tire burning does increase health risks.

While board members said they wanted the report's discrepancies investigated, they said they agree with the basic assertion that tire burning is basically safe.

Ghoul said the group will continue to monitor the waste board and is currently turning its attention to legislation that addresses tire burning. The group opposes AB964, a bill that supports tire burning, but with more stringent controls.

What was once a local group concerned with a single local interest is now reaching out to similar groups around the state. The new goal, Ghoul said, is a statewide ban on tire burning.

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