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'-alifornil.l o Wednesday, December 10, 2003 A Down and dirty e xaeczew.,.r.:K.. x:;•,-• n+e e¢a.„sxzs. :xars.Y cry ��Eu� r ? \ r t�5� s d u k �E Cleanu,p at the Aoyster tirefire site moves ahead slowly but surely Ben van der Meer,`Trary.Press being history rather than an ugly reminder of tire disposal • gone wrong. Fifty trucks a day, each carry- . The fire,sparked by electrical ing a couple tons of dirt. Five equipment,melted the tires into days a week,for about five. metal bands; pyrolitic oil and GLENN MOORE/TRACY PRESS months,until more than 1,000 nasty ash over several acres in a MAKING PROGRESS: A Sukut pounds of contaminated soil are pit west of MacArthur Drive. Construction worker(above)in protective gone. Buoyed by funding from tire clothing watches a backhoe take another scoop of contaminated soil.A Sukut X` Bi numbers,but it's a big disposal fees,the board has alio- (right) Big g p Construction worker waits for the job cleaning up the aftermath of rated$9 million for the site's next truck at the tarp station. Drivers the biggest tire fire in history. cleanup and started the project remain inside their vehicles(above left), "We're running right at the about a month ago. and workers ready the trucks to remove maximum,and it's going really Based on Johnson's estimate the contaminated soil from the site. smoothly,"said Albert Johnson, of five months for completion, r an associate engineering geolo- the crew of eight will be there - gist with the California until mid-spring, scraping, driver takes it to an on-site weigh Integrated Waste Management weighing and hauling. station,where the operator of a sec- Board. The board is in deep on a As an excavator swallowed. and excavator reads the scale,then project to remove several acres up a mound of dark brown soil, takes out some dirt or adds more as of dirty dirt south of Tracy, metal belts could be seen in the necessary to get the right weight, " stained with what's left of 8 mil- bite,which'was then dropped like a chef smoothing the frosting 1 lion burned tires. into the bed of a truck able to on an elaborate cake. That project means the carry 4,000 cubic yards of the From there,workers pull a tarp Royster tire fire,which started stuff,though the trucks only over the top of the hauling beds, in August 1998 and was finally carry about half that to comply and the driver receives a manifest squelched almost exactly three with weight limits. years ago,is growing closer to After the truck is filled,the �1; J. CLEANUP See A18