Last year a fire broke out in a Kuwait tyre dump which was so big that it could be seen from space.

Last year, an alleged illegal tyre dump in Swansea went up in flames, engulfing the city in toxic smoke.

One party was able to damage a bridge, while another set a tyre dump on fire and blew up the breeches of a number of naval guns.

Mat Crocker, head of waste and illegals at the Environment Agency, said: "Huge tyre dumps are not only an eyesore, but also present a serious risk to the environment and human health.

An audit of tyre dump sites being carried out by the Environment Agency has found that the biggest, Knighton Heyope in Powys, has around 9m tyres in it. Doncaster's Old Hampole Quarry currently has 2m.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption This 75,000-tonne tyre dump near Madrid has presented Spanish authorities with a big problem And last year in the US, BMW demonstrated how landfill methane could be cleaned and converted into hydrogen to power fuel cells.

The tire dump behind the ball field in Queens is a case in point.

The states largest tire dump is no longer in Oswego County.

Huge as it is, the Catskill yard is not the largest tire dump in the state.

Fires at tire dumps release toxic smoke.

The tire dump held over 7 million illegally stored tires and was allowed to burn for more than two years before it was extinguished.

In 1984, Minnesota became the first state to adopt legislation to regulate the disposal of used tires and the management of tire dumps.

Living off tire dumps?

Since the introduction of the tire-recycling strategy, tires have been used in a variety of innovative ways rather than being sent to tire dumps.

But from the air, Tabernacle offers a more conspicuous landmark: New Jersey's biggest tire dump.

But the tiger mosquito lives near people - in tire dumps, tin cans, flowerpots, birdbaths, buckets and anything else with a small amount of water.

"Removing the tires is only a partial solution," said Karl Braeker, who lives with his family beside the illegal tire dump.

CELA is representing clients who reside in close proximity to an illegal tire dump.

Fire crews have contained a stubborn fire at an abandoned tire dump in the small East Texas town of Hawkins.

"But all of these things are trying to discourage polluting acts, whether it is a tire dump, or toxic air emissions or contaminating lands."

Today, the Republicans in control of the Senate passed the governor's bill, but complicated matters by tacking on an amendment intended to clean up tire dumps.

H/T Dealbreaker (bonus: here’s the tire dump)

"That would be the equivalent of shutting down the auto industry because a scrap tire dump caught fire somewhere," said Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols.

He's playing golf with Governor Whitman on an old tire dump, with the Mad Hatter caddying.

The law is an attempt to control tire dumps, which have been the site of major fires and infestations of Asian tiger mosquitoes, which can spread disease.

Another insect immigrant, the Asian tiger mosquito, was first discovered in a scrap tire dump in Jacksonville in 1986 and has since spread throughout the state.

• Due to the toxicity of liquid residues that are released into the soil when tires ignite, tire dumps should always be established on impermeable surfaces.

As for regulations in the United States, owners of tire dumps are free to handle tires in virtually any manner they want in all but 19 states.

Most of them end up in huge, flammable tire dumps, which may hold millions of old tires, each one containing about a quart of oil in the rubber.

They sought to create a safe harbor in what co-founder Armando Ruiz recalled as a dangerous neighborhood of junked cars, vacant lots, tire dumps and dilapidated apartments.

Large, expertly made color images by a Canadian photographer show industrial subjects like marble quarries in India, a tire dump in California and modern development in China.