Jim Balloch
Knoxville News-Sentinel

KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. — Knox County has sent samples of the air around a fire at an illegal West Knox County dump to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for testing.

But Knox County Engineer Bruce Wuethrich said Wednesday there is still no indication that the dump on Tedford Drive contains anything toxic or anything beyond what was suspected from the beginning: "demolition debris," such as brush, trees, and concrete.

"We are just (doing the air tests) out of an abundance of precaution, because we know a number of residents in the area are concerned about it," Wuethrich said.

He said the EPA sent Knox County containers with which to capture the air. Samples were taken Monday, and have been sent back to the EPA for a series of tests.

But it will be at least another week, and possibly two weeks, before test results are back.

The Knox County Health Department has tested the water of a number of wells in the vicinity. Department spokeswoman Rane Randby said those results may be back as early as today.

Wuethrich estimated that expenses of excavating the dump site, extinguishing the fires and hauling the material away have reached between $150,000 and $160,000 so far.

"We've not written a single check to anybody yet, so that is just my best guesstimate," he said.

Wuethrich, however, said he cannot esti-

mate when the job will be finished.

Cleaning up the dump proved too difficult for Knox County's equipment, and Knox County ultimately had to contract with Renfro Construction to complete the task. Earlier, the county contracted with an environmental services firm when the fi re and dump were fi rst discovered.

On Monday, the Knox County Commission will be asked to appropriate $300,000 from the general fund to cover current and anticipated expenses as the bills begin coming in.

"I can say, with great caution, that we have made some progress," Wuethrich said late Wednesday afternoon. "It appears that we have one vein of fire put completely out. We think there are probably three or four separate veins of fire, not all of them commingled."

Excavation clears the way to the fires, which are then extinguished by Rural/Metro, after which the excavated material is inspected and hauled away.

Once the fires are out, the county will then decide if it will take on the responsibility of hauling all of the dumped material away. "That would be a mammoth undertaking, there's so much stuff in there," he said. "We will remove any material necessary to get to the fires. Once that is done, we will evaluate the situation on the rest of the material."