DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. — Douglasville police are trying to find someone who dumped at least 1,000 tires near a scenic recreational creek.
“Well, we got a mess out there,” Douglasville police Chief Chris Womack told Channel 2’s Jeff Dore.
The jaw-dropping pile of worn-out tires sits between Blairs Bridge Road and Interstate 20 on the banks of Sweetwater Creek. The pile is at least six feet high and 30 feet wide.
“This is upward of over 1,000 tires. This is going to be very costly on somebody,” Douglasville police Chief Chris Womack told Channel 2’s Jeff Dore.
Womack said he thinks the person responsible for the mess works in the tire business.
“My educated guess on this would be that it’s somebody with a tire store that’s had their employees out there not disposing of these the way they should, just dumping them on somebody’s property,” Womack said.
The creek next to the rotting rubber flows toward Sweetwater Creek Park and becomes a drinking water reservoir for East Point.
“I would think they’d be a hazardous material,” Womack said of the tires.
A tenth of a mile away, there was another dump site. That site only had 100 tires, plus carpet and furniture remains and discarded items.
Tire companies collect a fee on every tire to dispose of them correctly.
“Somebody being lazy, somebody trying to scam the system a little bit. Customers get charged for that when they go in and get tires replaced on their vehicle,” Womack said.
