It took about two months for one illegal tire dumping site in south Fulton County to accumulate hundreds of thousands of tires.
Daniel Gray, a game warden for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, said the dumping site in a remote wooded area of Kimberly Road near Cascade Road was the largest he’s ever investigated, Channel 2 Action News reported. Before it was cleaned out, wardens counted about 200,000 tires dumped there over a period of six to eight weeks.
DNR released surveillance images of two people they say contributed to the massive pile. Gray said Monday the site is still under investigation to determine if anyone else used it.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
He told Channel 2 the two were involved in a tire removal scheme.
“They will actually collect the disposal fee, where they are supposed to take them to a site and actually get charged for dumping them,” he said. “But instead they pocket that money.”
The Kimberly Road site is separate from another south Fulton County dumping ground Union City uncovered last year. It was not known Monday if the man police linked to that crime, Donald Leverette, was ever caught or charged.
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Aside from being a nuisance, Gray said the 200,000 tires were a public safety and environmental concern.
“If something of that caliber size was set on fire, you could possibly have a lot of smoke that could go over the city of Atlanta,” he told AJC.com.
According to Channel 2, the dump site sat on a gas pipeline that ran to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, presenting an even greater fire risk.
“All of the tires just sitting there, they collect water and become a mosquito breeding ground,” Gray said.
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