Still a mess in Hawkins

HAWKINS-It's been six months since that big tire fire in Hawkins. And people who live near the abandoned tire recycling plant want to know why the eye sore is still there?

"It was the worst thing that's ever happened in Hawkins," Mayor Sam Bradley said.

May 26, 2009 is a day that the residents of Hawkins will never forget. An estimated 100,000 tires caught fire at an abandoned tire recycling plant.

City school closed and the town was forced to evacuate.

Almost eight million gallons of water later, the fire was out.

So why after six months does everything still look the same? Neighbors told us its been long enough and now they're demanding answers.

City officials told us help came on September 1 when the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality awarded a $1.2 million contract for removal action.

Nationwide Demolition and Environmental Solutions out of Fort Worth got the bid.

"As far as environmental cleanup, this is the biggest environmental clean up that we've ever done," Woody Pemberton of Nationwide Demolition and Environmental Solutions said.

In mid-September, company officials said they removed their first load of tires from the site. They said the rain slowed progress for a few weeks, but now that the weather has passed the company is back to work.

The amount of time allotted for the contract is two years, but the company said with the progress they've made, they're confident they will have the site cleaned up well before then.

"We're thinking we can get it done in about six months, maybe eight months depending on what the weather does," Pemberton said.

According to Texas law, it's illegal to put whole tires into landfills. Because of this, most of of the clean up time is being spent on processing each and every tire, officials said.

Though the company is working deligently to clean up the land, but there's a lot of work ahead of them.

Though they believe the $1.2 million will be enough to fund the job, it's still to early to know for sure. If it's not, the taxpayers will have to pay the difference.

Nationwide Demolition and Environmental Solutions told us they want to recycle the tires they haul off.