The fire that sent huge plumes of thick smoke over northwest Eugene on Sunday ignited on a property long monitored by Oregon environmental regulators for illegal tire storage and other violations.
The current and former owners of the property at 29882 Kelso St. were fined a total of $35,000 by the state Department of Environmental Quality in early 2015 for the improper storage of about 10,000 tires on a 1.5-acre property about one mile east of the Eugene Airport between Highway 99 and Prairie Road. But the fines have not been paid, the DEQ said.
Storing more than 100 tires without a solid waste permit violates state law. The DEQ essentially considers the Kelso Street property an illegal waste dump.
The former owner, Michael Cress, was fined $19,775 by the state in 2015 for letting most of the tires pile up over years of operating a wrecking yard there.