Identifying Tire Reefs

The Puget Sound Tire Reef Project is an effort to identify, understand, quantify and prepare to mitigate the trash tire reefs in the Puget Sound. This project is partially funded through a Public Participation Grant from the Washington Department of Ecology, but is not necessarily endorsed by the Agency. Additional funding is provided by Coastal Sensing & Survey, Washington Scuba Alliance, and Innerspace Exploration Team.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the dumping of tires into the Puget Sound was promoted as a method for creating artificial reefs. Despite research indicating the potential negative impacts of this practice, over 45 (and potentially more than 60) tire reefs were established by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR). By the 1980s, the exact locations of these reefs were lost, rendering them phantom dump sites. Through the gathering of oral histories and employing advanced acoustic technologies, CSAS has to date documented numerous tire reef sites. CSAS has utilized sidescan sonar and ROVs to map and quantify these sites, making these findings publicly available to entities that can remove them.

The rediscovery and documentation of these sites create an important baseline for ongoing environmental management. By combining historical research with modern acoustic and visual methods, the project connects past practices with present-day accountability and future remediation planning.

What capabilities we used: Forward looking sonar, Sidescan, ROVs, positioning equipment (USBL, DVL, Etc.)