October 19, 2009
Everybody's jumping on the BAN-wagon
Lead wheel weights give way to viable alternatives
By: Bob Ulrich
State by state, lead wheel weights are being targeted for elimination. Vermont, Maine and Washington already have enacted bills prohibiting their use. California and Iowa have pending legislation.
Maryland legislators introduced a bill banning lead wheel weights into the state’s House of Representatives. But the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) opposed HR 763 because of budgetary constraints, and it failed.
If it had passed, the Maryland bill would have cost the department more than $220,000 annually in staff, supplies, equipment and other resources. The MDE does, however, support the National Lead Free-Wheel Weight Initiative (see sidebar, page 28). Sponsored by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the initiative “encourages the transition from the use of lead for wheel weights to lead-free alternatives.”
Minnesota and Oregon are voluntarily replacing lead wheel weights in their fleets. Oregon’s Department of Transportation (ODOT) undertook the transition with the help of Les Schwab Tire Centers, which supplies ODOT with tires.
The Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) drafted resolution 08-9 supporting a ban on the sale and installation of lead wheel weights by 2011. ECOS is a national, non-profit association of state and “territorial” environmental agency leaders.
A number of counties and cities also have jumped on the ban-wagon. The city of Ann Arbor, Mich., started phasing out lead wheel weights in 2004. City leaders in Blacksburg, Va., followed suit in 2006.
Both King County, Wash., and Contra Costa County, Calif., promote the use of lead-free alternatives in their fleets. The Fleet Administration Division of the King County Department of Transportation began its push in 2005 “due to environmental concerns and increased availability of alternatives.”
Earlier this year, the EPA honored Contra Costa County “for its commitment to voluntarily replace all lead wheel weights from thousands of tires, resulting in a reduction of more than 2,000 pounds of lead from the environment by 2012.”
The elimination of lead wheel weights from our industry seems inevitable. The piecemeal way in which the nation is going about it is not.
In the near future, state law may be superseded by federal legislation. The EPA recently agreed to promptly begin proceedings “for the issuance of a rule to prohibit the manufacture, processing and distribution in commerce of lead wheel balancing weights.”
The EPA is in the rule-making stage. Once the rule becomes final, it probably would make the EPA’s nationwide initiative moot, although the government bodies already trending that way will be ahead of the game.
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