Portland man faces mountain of 50,000 tires dumped on land he just bought

Khanh Tran thought he’d purchased his family’s dream property in Southeast 
Portland. He then returned to find it buried under thousands of illegally 
dumped tires.
Khanh Tran says he probably has more tires than anyone in Portland right 
now. That’s because tens of thousands of tires have been illegally dumped on 
a property he just purchased.

Khanh Tran thought he’d purchased his family’s dream property in
Southeast Portland. He then returned to find it buried under thousands
of illegally dumped tires. 

Khanh Tran says he probably has more tires than anyone in Portland right
now. That’s because tens of thousands of tires have been illegally
dumped on a property he just purchased. 

Tran bought a 1.2 acre property near Southeast 154th Avenue and Powell
Boulevard in February, believing it was his “dream property.” It was a
fresh start not far from his work and a place his newborn could someday
run barefoot in the grass. 

A small tire pile already sat on the land when he bought it, one he
planned to clean up himself. But, as first reported by KATU, Tran
returned in June with a contractor to start building his dream home and
found the pile had ballooned into what he estimates at 50,000 to 75,000
tires. 

“It was a nightmare when I saw it,” Tran told OPB. “It stressed me out
so much. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t sleep for the first few
days of that.” 

Cleanup could cost Tran hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s money he
says he just doesn’t have. 

Tran is working with local authorities to find out who has been dumping
tires on his property. He believes the problem is coming from tire shops
outsourcing the disposal of used tires to unlicensed haulers, who
promise to recycle the tires but dump them instead. 

“The business owner of a tire shop, they’re not responsible for their
tires,” Tran said. “That’s why you have tires dumped everywhere.” 

Tran isn’t alone. Metro, the regional government agency that manages
waste across the Portland area, says illegal tire dumping has spiked
this year. Stephanie Rawson, community stewardship manager for Metro’s
Regional Illegal Dumping Patrol, has watched the numbers climb
firsthand. 

“From July through June we’ve cleaned up over 15,000 tires,” Rawson told
OPB. “In May alone we cleaned up over 5,600 tires. Sometimes we had more
than 1,200 tires dumped in one location.” 

Metro can’t remove the tires for Tran since the agency is a publicly
funded operation and the tires are on private property. On public land,
Metro says it cleaned up more than 8,600 illegal dumping sites and
removed over 950 tons of waste in the past fiscal year alone. 

Tran’s property, because it’s privately owned, falls outside that reach.
Metro is working with the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office and the
Oregon Department of Environmental Quality — which regulates and permits
tire businesses/haulers — to investigate. 

“Tires are made of chemicals, petrochemicals and other things,” Rawson
said. “They can leach chemicals into the ground and then into our
waterways. They’re very flammable. They cause fire. They also become
breeding grounds for rodents and mosquitoes.” 

Metro’s transfer stations do accept up to 15 tires per customer per day.
Metro provides services online where you can report illegal dumping and
resources for those looking to recycle responsibly. 

Tran says the accountability gap Rawson described is exactly what he’s
run into. He’s pushing forward anyway, determined to build his dream
home for his growing family. 

“Anything can be fixed, anything can be beautiful, you just have to put
some, you know, care into it.” 

This story has been updated to note that it was first reported by KATU.
OPB regrets the error. 

https://www.opb.org/article/2026/07/12/portland-thousands-tires-dumped-la
nd/