CHESAPEAKE — It was an unexpected — and unwanted — find. Workers building the new Union-Rome Sewer plant in Chesapeake recently unearthed some 250 tires that were buried on the site years ago.

“We really don’t know how long they’ve been there,” engineer Doug Cade, of E.L. Robinson and Associates, said. “We don’t think it was excavated since 1965 so we’re not too sure how they got there or how long they have been there.”

Tests performed prior to the start of the project did not indicate the presence of the tires. The tires had to be removed before the project could continue.

Local officials have applied for a grant through the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to pay for the cost of having the scrap tires hauled off. Cade said he did not know what kind of price tag will be attached to the unexpected chore.

Meanwhile, work on the new sewer plant is largely on schedule, in spite of the tire excavation.

The EPA-mandated $23 million project should be completed by December 2009.