Waste Board to Extinguish Tracy Tire Fire

TRACY--After burning for more than two years, the tire fire at the Silas Royster property in Tracy will finally be extinguished. A contractor for the California Integrated Waste Management Board will begin fire suppression work early next week. The Waste Board is one of six boards and departments in the California Environmental Protection Agency.

The majority of the fire has burned itself out and only a small portion of the site where the tire pile was the deepest still continues to smolder. Over a three-week period, remaining hot spots in the tire pile will be put out and ash from the fire will be consolidated then covered with soil.

The fire suppression effort is being coordinated with the Tracy Fire Department, San Joaquin County Public Health Services, San Joaquin Valley Air Quality Management District, and California Air Resources Board.

Activity on the site will start on Thursday, November 30 when workers will begin preparing the site for fire suppression activities. The burn ash will have to be moved to access the burning areas of the tire pile. The burn ash will be wetted to keep it from becoming airborne during this process. Fire suppression efforts are expected to begin in earnest on Tuesday, December 5. An excavator will pull small amounts of burning debris from the pile and spread them on the ground where they will be immediately extinguished with foam and water.

Engineers and health officials do not anticipate any offsite exposure to smoke during the project. However, workers involved in the suppression effort--heavy equipment operators, fire fighters and safety personnel--will wear protective equipment. Air quality will be continuously monitored during the fire suppression activities to ensure worker and public health and safety.

The Waste Board's contractor, Sukut Construction (www.sukut.com) of Santa Ana, California is experienced in tire site cleanup and tire fire remediation. Sukut was the Board's contractor for cleanup of the Panoche burn site in Fresno County in 1996-97. A final report of the Panoche burn site remediation project is available on the Board's Web site at www.ciwmb.ca.gov/TireDisposal/Fires/Panoche/.

On August 7, 1998, an estimated 7 million tires being illegally stored at the Royster tire site were ignited. Because of the site's bowl-shaped geography and limited past success with fire suppression efforts on similar sized tire fires, environmental and fire officials determined that the best strategy was to let the tires burn. This decision was made to avoid the creation of a more significant groundwater contamination problem that may have occurred had large volumes of water been applied in a fire suppression effort. Such an effort would have produced an enormous volume of potentially hazardous liquid waste resulting from the mixture of water and pyrolytic oil, a by-product of burning tires.

Once the fire is extinguished, site characterization activities will be initiated to determine the residual contamination on the property. That work will likely begin early in 2001. Remediation plans will be developed after the site characterization is complete.

The Waste Board approved a spending plan of $364,925 in October for the fire suppression effort and in the future may consider additional funding for the cleanup effort.

The State's improved tire law, enacted through SB 876 (Escutia/Cardoza), takes effect January 1, 2001. SB 876 increases from $0.25 to $1.00 the per tire fee collected on the sale of new tires that funds the State waste tire cleanup, enforcement and market development programs. In passing the bill, the Legislature earmarked a minimum of $6.5 million a year for tire cleanup projects that will include the Royster site as well as the Filbin tire fire site near the western Stanislaus County community of Westley.

The six-member Integrated Waste Management Board is responsible for protecting the public's health and safety and the environment through management of the estimated 60 million tons of solid waste generated in California each year.  The Board works in partnership with local government, industry, and the public to reduce solid waste disposal and ensure environmentally safe landfills. Together, we reuse and recycle nearly 40 percent of our solid waste.

The Waste Board is one of six boards and departments within the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA).

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