On July 19, 2005, a tire fire broke out at the Watertown Tire and Recycling facility which is on the northwest side of Watertown, Wisconsin in the town of Shields. The Watertown Tire and Recycling facility is surrounded by Provimi RD to the south, Rich RD to the west, a creek to the east and agriculture to the north. The facility is in a mixed agricultural and residential area.
The fire spread rapidly and no injuries were reported. The fire engulfed the main building and the large tire stockpile in the rear of the facility. Actions taken by operators on site were able to establish a fire break for the chipped tires in the front of the building. There were several explosions on site from fuel tanks located within the building. Roads were blocked off and the Dodge County Health Department asked residents in the vicinity of the fire to close doors and windows and stay indoors (shelter in place). No evacuation order was made. The plume of smoke extended at least 93 miles to the southeast, stretching across Milwaukee and over central Lake Michigan. More than 637 square miles were covered by the plume, including 290 miles of Lake Michigan. The fire was reported to be out on Monday, July 25, 2005.
On July 20, 2005, Wisconsin DNR requested U.S. EPA's assistance in providing air monitoring and air sampling at the fire. U.S. EPA On-Scene Coordinator Mitchell, the Superfund Technical Assistance and Response Team (START), and U.S. EPA’s Emergency Response Team (ERT) mobilized to the site to provide air monitoring assistance.
On July 19, 2005 to July 21, 2005 local firefighters fought the fire with water, which was being hauled from a fire hydrant approximately 3 miles from the site. At approximately 1900 on July 21, 2005, Fire fighters started putting out the fire using a fire fighting agent called F-500. The F-500 Micelle Encapsulator Fire Suppression Agent is being supplied by Hazard Control Technologies Inc., of Fayetteville, GA. The fire was reported to be out on Monday, July 25, 2005.
On July 20, 2005, Wisconsin DNR requested U.S. EPA’s assistance in providing air monitoring and air sampling at the fire. U.S. EPA On-Scene Coordinator Mitchell, the Superfund Technical Assistance and Response Team (START), and U.S. EPA’s Emergency Response Team (ERT) mobilized to the site to provide air monitoring assistance. U.S. EPA On-Scene Coordinator Mitchell attended a meeting with the health department and other local officials to discuss site status and work activities.
On July 21, 2005, U.S. EPA and WESTON START began conducting air monitoring and air sampling. WESTON staged three PM10 samplers. One sampler was staged off of Rich road west of the site, one was off of K road northeast of the site and the third one was a background sample south of the site, off of K road and HWY 19. The PM10 filters were sent to the laboratory for Total Metals and Particulate analysis. In addition, WESTON collected one summa canister grab sample off of Provimi RD, south of the site (downwind) and one summa grab sample off of Rich RD, northwest of the site (upwind). WESTON also conducted air monitoring with a MultiRAE (PID/O2,CO,H2S,LEL), Personal DataRam and UltraRAE with Benzene tubes. U.S. EPA’s Emergency Response Team (ERT) staged ten AreaRAE's (NO, NO2, SO2, CO, H2S, VOCs) and eight DataRam's. In addition U.S. EPA conducted mobil air monitoring with the Rapid Assessment tools (RAT) (multiRAE, DataRam).
On July 21, 2005 and July 22,2005, U.S. EPA, START and ERT continued air monitoring. On July 21, 2005, WESTON collected an additional three eight-hour PM10 filters and two one-hour summa canister samples. On July 23, 2005 START and ERT demobilized from the site and U.S. EPA OSC Ken Rhame relieved OSC Jim Mitchell.
July 23, 2005 U.S. EPA Region 5 received a request from Wisconsin DNR to manage (contain and treat)the fire suppression water run-off from the site. U.S. EPA received estimates ranging between 8 and 10 million gallons of water was applied to suppress the fire. U.S. EPA observed that the run-off water was coffee colored, had high chemical oxygen demand (COD), high concentrations of zinc and had a strong petroleum odor. Analytical results from water samples originally collected by Wisconsin DNR should be available on July 26, 2005. DNR contractors had already constructed two dikes and a containment pit. One dike was constructed at Provimi RD and the second at HWY 19. The containment pit was located down gradient from the tire pile, between the tires and the creek. At approximately 14:00 hours, OSC Rhame spoke with the property owner (Tom Springer) and received a verbal access agreement and discussed the need to treat the fire suppression run-off water. Mr. Springer indicated that he wanted the water to be handled correctly since it was in a creek that is a tributary to the Rock River and that he wanted US EPA to perform the treating of the water thus giving US EPA permission to access his property. U.S. EPA at this time mobilized Environmental Quality Management (EQ) and the "Springfield Belle" to the site.
July 24, 20005 At approximately 03:30 hours, EQ personnel began arriving at the site. The days work activities included increasing the containment pits capacity, fortifying the dikes due to a storm system that went through the area, mobilizing equipment to the site and discussing discharge limitations with DNR. OSC Anita Boseman arrived on site to assist and rotate shifts.
July 25, 2005 START Maradkel re-mobilized to the site. Additional personnel arrived on site. Weather forecast predicted scattered thunderstorms on July 25 and a 80% chance of rain on July 26. Contractors focused their efforts toward increasing the containment capacity,pumping the run-off water contained in the creek to the containment pit and constructing a rock and gravel pad to place the treatment system on upon arrival. At approximately 14:30 hours DNR (James Congdon) observed live fish in the Rock River and 2.5 ppm Oxygen at the Hwy 19 dike
Continue with containment and collection efforts, review analytical to design an appropriate treatment system and to mobilized the appropriate material to the site to set up the chosen treatment method.
Dewater creek from Provimi to HWY 19 and transport to pit onsite for containment and treatment.
Collect water samples from pit on site and creek downgradient.
Discharge Limits
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