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OCT 13 '98 13:22 FROM:BOB JUDD 916-444-3314 T-113 P.04/13 F-344 <br /> October 8, 1998 <br /> EXAMINATION OF TOXIC AIR EMISSIONS RELEASED DURING <br /> THE AUGUST 1998 ROYSTER TIRE PILE FIRE IN TRACY, CALIFORNIA <br /> Summary of Findings <br /> • Approximately six million waste tires (75,000 tons of tires) were consumed by an <br /> uncontrolled fire that began on August 7, 1998, at the Royster Tire Disposal Site <br /> in Tracy, California. <br /> • An estimated 4.8 million pounds of 112 different organic and metal contaminants, <br /> including more than 425 thousand pounds of cancer-causing compounds, were <br /> released into the air during this fire. This volume of contaminants does not <br /> Include dioxins or furans, known carcinogens which were also likely to have been <br /> emitted; nor does it include substantial amounts of criteria pollutants such as <br /> nitroclen oxides, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, or particulates which were <br /> released. <br /> The contaminant emitted in the largest quantity by the Tracy fire was benzene, a <br /> known carcinogen. An estimated 323 thousand pounds of benzene were <br /> released into the air by the fire. <br /> • Toxic, air contaminants released by the Tracy fire (425 thousand pounds) were <br /> 1.6 times greater than the total toxic air contaminants (264 thousand pounds) <br /> released from all sources In the eight-county San Joaquin Valley Unified Air <br /> Pollution Control District during the entire calendar year of 1996. <br /> 10 For comparative purposes, emissions data from the nearby Modesto Energy <br /> Facility, which combusts approximately five million tires per year to create <br /> electricity under environmentally-controlled conditions, were used as a reference <br /> point . Combusting more than 80% of the tires consumed by the Tracy fire, the <br /> annual emissions from the Modesto Energy Facility, including its barely <br /> detectable emissions of dioxins and furans, equal only four one-hundredths of <br /> one percent (0.04°/x) of the total of all selected emissions from the Tracy fire and <br /> only three one-thousandths of one percent (0.003%) of the carcinogenic <br /> emissions from the Tracy fire. <br />