Officials to remove 1970s tire reef that became eco-disaster off Fort Lauderdale

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4 Threads with the same subject merged.
(this the reason if some if the flow is not quite logical)
 
river_sand_bar:
So... silly questions, was it intended for the the tires to eventually rot away and become nothing? Or infact the tires to be a long standing item that would last for ever and ever like concrete?
When this concept was originally pioneered, it was hoped that tires in southern waters would serve as a substrate for coral colonies and just be covered over time. Well, it didn't work since the petroleum in the tires minutely leaching out just never went down too well with coral polyps.
There never has been any economical or environmental way to get rid of the millions of used tires that just do not go away. Even barging them out past the continental shelf was too expensive due to the absolute sheer volume and handling difficulties.
Welcome to civilization!
The person who solves this problem will have Bill Gates borrowing money from him/her.
 
Hi guys,

Great to see so much interest in this thread. Firstly im not a diver I invented a cutting system for waste tyres. We have been very intersted in this site for a while now.

We are to meet with the right people in Florida next week and think we have a pretty good chance of bringing up the 600k+ they are targeting. Problem is that the navy will be doing most of the diving and the predicted 700 tires a day is to slow.

We have ways of bringing to shore around 3000+ tires a day fully decontaminated of silt and weed so they can be processed at the proper tire processing site.

How do a team of 20 divers get from 700 to 3000 tires up is the question. We feel the lift bag is the way. They currently plan on a gargo net.

Individual lift bags that can be reused are our gut feeling. collected on the surface and the tires put onto the vessel where we do our processing. Emptied lift bags are resent to the bottom and the process starts sgain.

Thoughts???
 
It sounds interesting, keep us posted on the progress.

Why did the Navy decide to go with cargo nets instead of lift bags?
 
They are still deciding what to do, the cargo nets straight into trailer units is the current thought plan. But there is a trial to be conducted in May/June to work a few things out i hear.

What i find interesting is that the powers to be, do not seem to have factored in the public invovment in a possible solution.

The issue we would have with our method is not the "what, when and how" with the tires once they reach the surface, just how to get enough up a day. Plain and simple divers and an efficent method are the answer.
 
I emailed the guy from Broward County who is in charge of this, asking about volunteer divers and I have not heard anything back.
 
I'm sure that they would have concerns about liability if they get a bunch of volunteer divers. It's not quite the same as picking up litter along the roadside. Not saying it couldn't be managed, but I can see why someone might be reluctant to accept the help of a bunch of volunteer divers. They could easily endanger not only themselves, but others as well.

[edit: concerns not just about liability, but also diver safety. I should have listed safety first.]
 
My dive club used to help the county clean up derelict vessels and sink them for artificial reefs. It was great fun and we claim quite a fleet sunk off Broward County.

Many years ago, the County's insurance said volunteers can't do stuff like this anymore. Bottom line: don't count on the county wanting to use us. Too bad, just from ScubaBoard alone, we could amass quite a lot of muscle.
 
yeah... imagine 100 divers showing up to help, half of them haven't been diving in 10 years; one quarter are dingalings in for a party and get drunk the night before; the remaining one quarter are decent divers but have never done anything like this before

it's the stuff of nightmares
 
https://xf2.scubaboard.com/community/forums/cave-diving.45/

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