Volunteers pull about 300 tires from Yough River

Sixty-five volunteers pulled about 300 tires from a 4-mile stretch of the Youghiogheny River on Sunday, according to Westmoreland Cleanways director Ellen Keefe.

But there is still more work to do.

“We are definitely planning to do this next year,” she said. “This will become an annual event it looks like.”

Volunteer canoers took to the water to clean up tires that apparently were dumped between Cedar Creek Park in Rostraver and West Newton. Belle Vernon Rotary teamed up with Westmoreland Cleanways and Youghiogheny Canoe Outfitters for the event.

There were three areas where the tires seemed to be concentrated: just upriver of the Cedar Creek boat launch, an area called Turtle Island, and a third spot closer to West Newton. But by the time canoers hit the first two hot spots, there wasn’t any room for more tires, Keefe said.

“All the canoes were filled, we couldn’t even get them,” she said.

Tires were hung up on the banks or on fallen trees. Volunteers stacked them in canoes and then dumped them into a large trash receptacle for recycling.

Westmoreland Cleanways pulled about 1,000 tires out of that stretch of the river during four cleanups from 2010 to 2013. Tires leech chemicals and road oil into the water, Keefe said.

Tires can be recycled at several locations in Westmoreland County, according to the organization’s recycling guide. They are accepted for a fee at Westmoreland Cleanways Recycling Center, 113 Innovative Lane, Latrobe (Unity), and at several auto centers and municipal buildings in the area.

Westmoreland Cleanways charges $3 for a passenger tire that is not on a rim. Fees range from $15 to $40 for tires used on tractor-trailers and for agricultural or heavy machinery purposes.