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Cleanup W. z, Continued from Al showing the contents and des- tination, es tination,both for official x paperwork and in case they encounter law enforcement on the trek. The soil is bound for a dis- posal site for hazardous waste in Kettleman City, about 130 miles from Tracy. Though the project sched- ule will take them through the brunt of a local winter, Johnson said,the storms they've experienced so far haven't slowed them much. -("if it started raining really, ' really hard,we might have to shut down,"he said. But wet 1's weather helps a little bit also, he said,by keeping down the need for dust suppression. Men in protective helmets and face shields worked both GLENN MOOREfTRACY PRESS on the ground and in the BIG MESS: A Sukut Construction �14, heavy machinery as Johnson worker(above) inprotective clothing spoke, and the truck drivers watches as a backhoe fills a truck with nd forth kept the contaminated soil.Workers roll a tarp going back a p n ht)over a truckload of contaminat- 9 � windows rolled up tightly. 2( Though the soil is not consid- soil as cleanup work at the Royster ; ered strongly toxic,breathing tire fire site continues. " it openly wouldn't be too health either, he said. ` Y busy,"Johnson said. Sukut Construction,basedElsewhere in the pit, short ' in Santa Ana, is handling the grass has overgrown what was a t' ' removal portion of the project, sizable tire disposal pit,operatedAS _ while Levine-Fricke, a mom- _ toring group from Emeryville, -by Silas Chuck Royster. State tests the soil regularly as officials were already pressuring '= him to clean up the pit when the crews work. The small team is working fire started on Aug. 7, 1998. Royster died within weeks of the on a pile of dirt on the pit's fire catching. eastern side,with an area in the center already mostly Johnson said most people don't realize that only a few cleared. Still to go,though,are meas of the pit were actually deed to the land is still with "I d,on't think that's likely to some big piles on the western occupied by tires;the rest of it Royster's estate,which has a suit happej z,"he said. edge,where piles of rusting has become a scrubby grassland occupied b the occasional against it by the state for the State laws enacted since then metal treads resemble from a p Y fire's extinguishing and cleanup both bi ring more pressure on pit distance pools of pyrolitic oil ground squirrel and rabbit, he costs. owner:;to keep things manage- that melted off long ago,turn- said. ing the soil in that area an There are no definite plans for He laughed when asked if it able ar id provide more money for ugly gray. the site once the project is fin- could become a fire disposal site projects like Royster's,he "We'have plenty to keen us ished,Johnson said.The actual again. explair.red.