"Think inside the triangle." Given its location in the mathematically shaped area defined by Interstates 580, 5 and 205, so reads the trademarked motto chosen by the City of Tracy, Calif., home to 82,922 people and 7 million tires well, that was before the fire.
In 1998, Johnny Delaney, Tracy born and raised, traded his firefighter hat for his trucker cap - his frustration ignited by the same inferno that engulfed the town's illegal tire dump.
Firefighters battled flames that shot 70 feet into the air, but their efforts were futile two years later, the blaze was still alive at the Royster Waste Tire Site. Realizing the massive volume of water needed to suppress the fire in its early stages would leave behind a sea of chemicals in the basin, authorities decided to let the tires burn to avoid groundwater contamination (this would prove impossible to do, and Tracy suffered contamination of the water and of the air too!).
Johnny Delaney hated giving up, just like he had hated the sight of that dump his entire life. Could he fight the tire battle from a different angle? Could he "think outside the triangle"? After all, the problem isn't unique to Tracy or California; the United States generates over 280 million used tires every 365 days.
He acted fast; barely a few months had passed and Delaney, no longer a firefighter, was behind the wheel of a semi-truck, one of the thousands crossing the border into Mexico, loaded to bursting point with used tires deemed useless in the U.S. but, even with little tread, still useful in Mexico. Delaney had heard of the benefits of the trade, particularly in California and the Baja Peninsula states. In 2008, for example, legal used tire sales to Baja generated $5.4 million for California companies and $13 million for Mexican businesses and authorities. The trade in used tires in Baja equals $23 million in wages from 5,500 jobs. "Without the tires, where would these go?" Delaney wondered.
But this month I followed Johnny's tires' footsteps; it turns out there are also numerous drawbacks to the trade. Tires from all over the place make their way to California and easily get exported from there. Most enter Mexico illegally, but even in the legal trade, consignments are hard to check and contain many tires with no useful tread on them - basically, they are waste. The flow of tires is such that Baja is dotted with big and small tire dumps. Here, frequent fires poison the air, and since tires retain water and absorb heat really well, waste tire sites are perfect grounds for disease-carrying mosquitoes and parasites. But the residents of Baja cannot do without used tires. Who could afford a new set? An hour's wages in San Diego are a day's wages for them.
It's a relief to know that Delaney also learned about these issues as time went on. Nowadays he drives the length of the peninsula, delivering his tires only to responsible tire dealers. And he takes the time to check that every one of his tires has a decent amount of tread. His route takes him all the way to La Paz, the birthplace of a solution designed to put an end to Mexico's tire dumps. Remember Tracy's 7 million tires that burned? La Paz's landfill contains 7 million tires as well.
Interested in how the tire problem is being solved in La Paz and who are the people responsible for that? Don't miss Part 2 of the story in next week's Chief.
