Calhoun County, along with several other counties in the area, has received a grant to help deal with left over tires.

Calhoun County’s Solid Waste Management program, as part of the Southwest Michigan Solid Waste Consortium, has received part of a $90,000 grant from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to deal with scrap tire cleanup. With the grant, scrap tire cleanup days will be held in Battle Creek, Albion, Athens, and Tekonsha, with exact dates to be set soon.

Calhoun County applied for the grant along with Allegan, Berrien, Branch, Cass, St. Joseph and Van Buren counties.

The DEQ says that scrap tires are an environmental and health risk because they present a habitat for mosquitos to breed, and they also pose a fire risk. Runoff from scrap tires also can pollute groundwater and surface water. They say that since 1993, the state has spent $28.3 million to clean up 33.4 million tires at 1,000 sites across Michigan.

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