Objective

To determine the extent of implementation of the three recommendations made in our initial audit report, Oversight of Waste Tire Site Cleanup and Use of Waste Tire Fees (Report 2018-S-43).

About the Program

Waste tires can pose serious risks to public health, safety, and the environment. They provide an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes and other disease-carrying pests and are a fire hazard with the potential for devastating consequences. In 2003, the Waste Tire Management and Recycling Act (Act) was enacted to ensure the proper management of waste tires in the State. The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), through its Division of Materials Management and its regional offices, is responsible for enforcement and abatement (cleanup) of waste tire sites. DEC has established an enforcement policy to ensure timely abatement. To fund waste tire management and recycling efforts, the Environmental Conservation Law (Law) established a waste tire management and recycling fee of $2.50 for each new tire sold. All fees are deposited into the Waste Management and Cleanup Fund (Fund) for use in administration of provisions of the Act. DEC is authorized to use the Fund to cover costs associated with administering and enforcing the Act, such as inventorying and assessing waste tire sites and abating non-compliant waste tire stockpiles. Between April 1, 2013 and March 31, 2020, DEC received approximately $192 million in fees. DEC uses program cost centers to track expenses charged to the Fund to specific programs, including those related to waste tires and the collection, treatment, and disposal of refuse and other solid waste. Disbursements from the Fund for personal services, non-personal services, and fringe benefit costs totaled about $158 million between April 1, 2013 and March 31, 2020.

We issued our initial audit report on August 29, 2019. The audit objective was to determine if DEC is adequately monitoring and timely abating waste tire sites and whether waste tire fee collections are being used consistent with the purposes defined in the Law.  Our audit covered the period April 1, 2016 through February 6, 2019.

Our initial audit found that DEC had made significant progress abating identified waste tire sites. Of the 187 non-compliant waste tire sites identified by DEC, nearly 44 million tires (99 percent) were abated at 160 sites (86 percent) as of October 2018. Most of the remaining 27 non-compliant sites contain relatively few waste tires. However, we identified delays in the timely abatement of waste tire sites due to delays in establishing a new abatement contract through the Office of General Services (OGS) as well as delays with certain enforcement steps typically taken prior to initiating the abatement process for some of the remaining 27 sites. We also found some expenses charged to the Fund that did not appear to be related to waste tire abatement or other waste management activities allowable under the Law. While officials told us they developed a process in 2010 that allows divisions with mandated responsibilities that include, but are not limited to, activities covered under the Law to charge certain amounts to the Fund, the methodology used to develop that process was neither retained nor provided for our review. We made three recommendations to DEC to collaborate with OGS to renew or establish new abatement contracts in a timely manner, initiate enforcement actions as promptly as possible for non-compliant sites, and establish and document a methodology to estimate the portion of expenses to be charged to the Fund consistent with the authorized purposes under the Law.

Key Finding

We found that DEC has implemented all three of the recommendations from our initial report.