With NOAA grant, county will remove tires from artificial reefs
December 12, 2024 - Pinellas County has accepted a $2.25 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to clean up waste tires placed in the Gulf of Mexico and Tampa Bay as artificial reefs in the 1970s and 1980s. In the early '90s the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission determined tires are harmful to the environment, and do not make efficient or stable reef materials.