DEKALB COUNTY, GA — DeKalb County is detailing a massive cleanup of illegally-dumped tires, while vowing to aggressively hunt down and bring to justice the people who’ve dumped them.

CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson says “Operation Clean Sweep,” launched this year, has removed 37,000 tires dumped in residential neighborhoods, in woods, down ravines, and even in front of operating businesses.

“If these 37,000 tires were laid end to end, they would stretch 20 to 25 miles,” she says, “the equivalent of the entire Atlanta Beltline loop, or the distance from midtown Atlanta to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. That is the scale of what our communities have been forced to deal with.”

Cochran-Johnson says the County has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in resources and manpower cleaning up the tires.

“It costs us more to remediate the condition than the individual is being fined,” says Cochran Johnson.

DeKalb’s Superintendent of Beautification, Ricky Crockett, says the tires rounded up at eight dumping sites this year filled more than 30 53-foot tractor trailers. The tires were taken to recycling centers. While tires are barred from being landfilled, Crockett says individual residents can bring up to 10 tires to the Seminole Road landfill, where tires are collected and moved to a recycler. The Sanitation crew can pick up up to four tires at a cost of $2.00 each.

Come January, CEO Cochran-Johnson says they plan to lobby state lawmakers to toughen the jail and fine penalties for tire dumping by escalating it from a misdemeanor to a felony. Current fines are $1,000-$5,000.

“Illegal dumping is not just a crime, it’s a public health concern and a public safety concern,” says DeKalb County Police Chief Greg Padrick.

Padrick says officers will use every tool at their disposal--overt, covert, and surveillance--to find and arrest the criminals. Already, DKPD has obtained two warrants for accused large-scale tire dumpers.

“This will not be tolerated,” says the chief. “It is disrespectful to our community.”

Often, they have found that the tires are trashed by businesses who receive them under the guise of properly disposing of them, but get rid of them to avoid paying necessary fees.

“We’ve documented cases across DeKalb where businesses drive into our county under the cloak of night and dump 3,000 tires in a single incident, leaving taxpayers and neighborhoods to pick up the pieces--and the tires,” says Cochran Johnson.

She believes there will be bipartisan support for cracking down on tire dumping when Georgia’s new legislative session begins.

“It is disrespectful to us and it affects economic development as well as property values and quality of life” she says.

The CEO reveals that in January, the County will also launch an unprecedented initiative to accept used tires and recycle them.