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Thursday <br /> T17e.For <br /> November 30, 2000 <br /> Stockton San Joaquin • Mother Lode <br /> AUGUST <br /> 1998: <br /> ' Smoke bil- <br /> lows from <br /> k Royster Tire <br /> rx> � Disposal <br /> TW <br /> Oye;us <br /> near Tracy <br /> � � when the <br /> fire began <br /> more than <br /> n two years <br /> bur < � <br /> � ago. <br /> Tracy Press <br /> s. file photo <br /> neus endY <br /> fficials finally to put <br /> moldering tire fire out <br />■3y Fran Bott <br />�.iecord Staff Writer <br /> TRACY—A slowly smoldering fire that has burned <br /> millions of tires,sending plumes of smoke into the air , m <br /> for more than two years,will finally be extinguished. n � 4As <br /> ' <br /> California Integrated Waste Management Board <br /> x <br /> officials announced Wednesday that board engineers <br /> and Tracy Fire Department crews will start work <br /> Tuesday to put out the fire at the Royster Tire Disposal <br /> pit,off of South MacArthur Road south of Tracy. <br /> Bob Fujii, board <br /> program manager, <br /> cited logistics, the lwll <br /> risk of flushing toxic <br /> materials into the <br /> ground and legal <br /> wrangling over who <br /> will pay for the <br /> clean-up as reasons <br /> the fire has been <br /> allowed to burn <br /> since August 1998. <br /> "The magnitude <br /> of the fire restricted <br /> us from getting out <br /> here sooner," Fujii TAKING CHARGE: Waste- <br /> said. the time, <br /> the solution would management engineer Todd <br /> have taken a lot Thalhamer will oversee the <br /> more water, which cleanup process. { <br /> woulc< have driven <br /> the contaminants into the groundwater." <br /> Smoldering coils of steel belts and ash mark the <br /> remnants of 7 million tires that have burned continu- <br /> ously since the blaze began with a spark thrown from <br /> electrical equipment. Y� <br /> Though fires were doused at several spots through- <br /> out the 52-acre site,the millions of tires in an 80-foot- _ ,'� ' _r <br /> deep pit were allowed to burn. ; <br /> Todd Thalhamer, a waste-management engineer Record photos by CRAIG SANDERS <br /> overseeing next week's project,said there are two piles <br /> of burning ash and tires—one about 6 feet deep,the WHAT'S LEFT?Coils of steel belts mark the remnants of 7 million <br /> other about 12 feet deep—that will be extinguished tires that have burned continuously since the Royster Tire Disposal <br /> Please see TIRE FIRE,Back page blaze began with a spark thrown from electrical equipment. <br />