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C4 Friday,August 14, 1998 Mess extends beyond site of Tracy tire fire 4 For years,Silas"Chuck" But Tracy's so-called"tire Royster has defied state and king"has company in the local environmental regula- blame department.State reg- tors.He has fought them in ulators either allowed him to court and has not complied operate without change or with rulings against him. chose to look the other way. The great fear of his Tracy While lawyers and bureau- neighbors has been crats squabbled, that his rubber junk- Royster kept collecting yard,7 million tires tires and the former strong,would one day rock quarry continued create a disaster.The to fill up.Without an worst-case has always agency enforcing rules been that Royster's adopted by California defiance would oneas far back as 1985,the da explode. y xp . pit became a powder Well,it happened. '. keg.The result was last Late last week,a week's mini-Mount St. spark from weed- ROYSTER: Helens. cutting equipment "Tire king" Part of the problem is ignited a firestorm of California's scrap-tire burning rubber—quickly fee—one of the lowest in the engulfing his 55-acre site. nation at 25 cents per new tire Plumes of ugly,smelly black —which funds the entire state's smoke rose 6,000 to 7,000 feet response to scrap tires with just Friday evening and into the $4.5 million per year. weekend.Central Valley resi- That's hardly enough to dents as far away as Sacra- chase down defiant violators. mento and Modesto were able To some,the charred pit at S.F. to see the huge,billowing cloud. Royster Tire Disposal is no It became the worst tire-fire surprise.The air-pollution inferno in state history. concerns have diminished Thankfully,the air-pollution somewhat,but groundwater disaster did not reach its full contamination remains a pos- potential.Winds coming off sibility and cleanup of the site the Altamont Pass kept things promises to be the next legal moving during the first few battleground. hours of the firefight,distribut- Under Garrigan's 1996 ruling, ing the smoke south and east. Royster was supposed to set up Even so,Manteca,Modesto, a trust fund to pay for possible Lathrop and the Escalon/Ripon closure or cleanup of the South areas were all shrouded by the MacArthur Drive tire yard. smoke for hours.People in Perhaps realizing who they're Stockton and Lodi saw what dealing with,county supervi- looked like a huge,dark cloud sors this week declared the site moving over the area.The smell a local emergency,a necessary was pervasive for a full day step toward qualifying for fed- after the fire started. eral Superfund money. Could the fire have been bet- From the start,Royster has ter contained?If environmen- argued that his"tire regulations and recommen- dates the Legislature's adoption dations had been followed, of the of solid-waste act,thereby there's little doubt that the making it exempt and not sub- answer is yes.Two things could ject to the permit conditions. have made the difference: Separating the tires into It's too bad Royster didn't bite bundles so that a single spark the bullet a long time ago and doesn't ignite the whole load. do the right thing anyway.It's Providing a water supply also too bad environmental close enough to fight the fire. watchdogs haven't had the Royster,despite being told to financing or the teeth to pro- do both of those things as part ceed against violators. of the California Solid Waste The only thing they can do Management Act's permit now is make sure Royster pays process,never complied.Even his fair share of the cleanup after he was ordered to get a costs,and then either get him permit by San Joaquin Superior out of the fire business or make Court Judge Michael Garrigan, sure the conditions under which Royster never complied. he operates are strictly enforced.