DNR issues fines in two north-central Iowa tire burning cases

MASON CITY — The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has levied fines against two north-central Iowans for not complying with Iowa’s open burning regulations and waste tire storage laws. 

=== Dennis Reich of Mason City has been fined $3100 for burning tires on another person’s property. According to the DNR, authorities were called to a tire fire actively taking place on a property near Grafton in Worth County late on the night of April 13th. The property owner James Prince was not at the scene and when contacted, he requested anyone who was there to be charged with trespassing, with five individuals including Reich being arrested for trespassing. Reich admitted to burning 25 tires, and when told to stop burning tires, Reich unloaded the rest of the tires from a trailer onto the ground. The DNR was called to the same property on April 27th, and on investigation found over 100 tire beads in a burn site still producing smoke, and also other prior burn sites that contained smaller amounts of tire remnants, as well as 100 unburned tires disposed at the site. On May 9th, the Worth County Attorney contacted Reich, who admitted to throwing some tires on an already burning brush fire at the property. The DNR issued a notice of violation to Reich on May 12th with an administrative order being issued recently along with the $3100 administrative penalty. 

=== Brian Young of Dumont has been fined $7000 for illegally burning tires. The DNR says on February 4th that they received a complaint from the Butler County Emergency Coordinator about an uncontrolled brush burn that day. Young had called in the fire when it got out of control and spread to nearby buildings. DNR staff investigated four days later, finding that there were over 1000 tires that had been burned on the property that was owned by a friend of Young that he was caretaking. Young stated that he had an area of trees cleared by someone and did not realize the person piled the brush on top of a pile of tires. Young was recently ordered to pay an administrative penalty of $7000.