Peter Egerton wrote:
> Hey all,
>
> I agree with Andrew and also have my own concerns...a certain tire-reef
> incident in Florida comes to mind (I'm sure most of you know have heard
> about
> the tire reef that had to be removed due to toxic effects that were
> unforeseen!).
> (The main point of caution that we have to learn from that case was that
> what may seem like a safe and logical thing to do today may be discovered
> as a horrible mistake in years to come.)

(snip some excellent points)

You refer to the tire reef incident in SoFla in the past tense - almost
all of it is still there and will not be completely removed for several
years.

This dumping was done not as a way to make habitat (NOTHING grows on or
around old tires) but to get rid of hundreds of thousands of old tires
where they were out of sight. They are now scattered for miles up the
reef. The cost of removing them is actually more than the price of the
tires when they were new.

The ocean remains the dumping ground of choice, cheap and out of sight,
for staggering amounts of waste. Although there are laws regulating this
dumping, there is NO governmental enforcement - what little enforcement
there is, is done by small local not-for-profits suing dumpers for
violation of existing laws and regulations.

If you care, you have to ferret out these organizations and send them a
few dollars to support this enforcement.

I won't bother mentioning Reef-Rescue.org again.

m

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