Scrap Tires | Scrap Tire News | California Tire Report

In a January 12, 2000 press release Ed Tomeo president of UAE Energy Operations Corp. (MELP's parent company) attributed the plant's closing to "circumstances resulting from a tire pile fire on the property adjacent to the Modesto Energy facility." Tomeo said that those circumstances made it impossible "to restore our supply of tires needed to run the plant and therefore maintain the business." On September 22, 1999 a huge fire at the adjacent pile Tomeo referred to in his statement, forced the energy facility to shut down for nearly two months. After the fire, MELP helped with the cleanup effort by burning nearly 1 million tires from the fire site without charging a tip fee.

On January 13, Ralph E. Chandler, Executive Director of the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB) issued a statement saying that the Board "is disappointed to learn of United American Energy's (UAE) decision to order the shutdown of its energy generating facility at Westley, CA."

Chandler noted that prior to last September's fire at the tire pile, the plant provided a use for a portion of California's scrap tires. He emphasized the importance of "California moving aggressively forward to establish long term sustainable markets for waste tires" in the wake of the energy plant closing.

UAE had talked about closing the plant on several occasions in recent years citing the low tip fees they had to charge in order to attract scrap tires. The company had also sought legislative changes to the state's scrap tire law to provide incentives that would benefit energy and other markets in the state. Legislation this year will likely contain incentives, fees, other provisions that could benefit the facility, but UAE's Tomeo said it would "be too late for Modesto Energy."

According to Chandler, the Waste Board is notifying all registered tire haulers in the state that the plant is "no longer available as a destination for their tires."

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