Ghost of Angora fire returns to haunt Genoa

Last summer, the Angora fire in South Lake Tahoe sent smoke pouring into Carson Valley causing health concerns.

The foundations of homes burned in the fire, now crushed into powder and used for road base, returned to bedevil Genoans this summer.

The material was used to replace material on Genoa's dirt roads that had been scraped up by snowplowing last winter.

Town engineer Mark Gonzales reported to the town board that several weeks after the roads were resurfaced in May, residents began to notice nails, screws and other metal parts coming to the surface and that the roads were very dusty.

Gonzales said that when the town went to bid for new material, their usual provider was unavailable, so they went with a new provider whose material had a high content of cement.

"Research into the recycled base material that was used on the Genoa roads revealed that the material was produced from the large amount of concrete foundations that were removed from the 2007 Angora Fire in the Lake Tahoe Basin," he said. "These foundations were crushed with all of the other recycled concrete materials within the region with little or no asphalt concrete present in the mixture."

Gonzales said he didn't realize how much concrete was in the material until after complaints started coming in.

In July the provider swept the town's roads with a magnet in order to remove the metal bits.

Chairwoman Kitty DeSocio said she felt the road posed a health issue.

"I walked the dog this morning and wished I'd had an aspirator," Town Board member Dave Whitgob said. "This is unacceptable. We need to get it fixed immediately."

Gonzales estimated the cost of capping the streets with new material would be $13,000. However, board members said they wanted to have the problem material removed.

"We need to get the road fixed," said board member Bill Donohoe in his motion to remove the material and replace it with asphalt grindings. Donohoe set a $20,000 maximum cost for replacing the material.