Failure Of Field-Burning Summit Sparks Group Citizens Group Wants To Eliminate Burning Through Ordinance Or Suit

A citizens group said Tuesday it will push for a county ordinance or a class action to eliminate Spokane County grass field burning.

The threat came after the Inland Northwest Field Burning Summit failed Tuesday to sign a one-year pact voluntarily regulating Spokane and North Idaho grass burning this summer.

“We’ve waited five years in good faith for results” from the summit, said Dr. Patricia Hoffman, a Spokane Valley veterinarian organizing the citizens group. “Not only has no progress been made toward reduction of grass burning, but we now have a law that lets them burn any time they want.”

Hoffman said the citizens group has scheduled its first meeting at 6:30 p.m. today at Rock Pointe Center, 316 W. Boone. More than 300 people are on a mailing list for the yet unnamed organization.

The group was agitated last month when Washington legislators removed the teeth from the Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority, which had regulated burning of 25,000 acres of Kentucky bluegrass. Under the new law, SCAPCA was forced to drop its demands that farmers restrict burning to a 16-day window during ideal weather conditions. It also is considering dropping a cap on how many acres each farmer can burn.

For environmentalists - and thousands of sufferers of respiratory ailments - the changes run counter to the summit’s goal of reducing the amount of grass burning and smoke in the air during August and September, peak periods for outdoor activities.

But grass growers are wondering what all the fuss is about. They’ve regulated themselves for years in North Idaho and merely are seeking the same freedoms in Spokane County.

“We are not going to stand for anything less than full compliance,” said John Cornwall, president of the Intermountain Grass Growers Association.

Cornwall, a Fairfield farmer, promised that the association would publicly embarrass any farmers who violate the voluntary grassburning agreement by publishing their names in the newspaper.

But many people are unsure whose standards must be met. After months of deliberation, the 14 volunteer members of the summit, representing agriculture, environmentalists, health care and government, have yet to agree on burning rules for this season.

Farmers burn their fields to get rid of weeds and disease and to promote a better yield of lawn and forage seeds.

Controversy arose at the summit on Tuesday when grass growers proposed a 47-day burning window in Spokane County beginning Aug. 15.

With burning prohibited on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, that would make 25 days available for burning, weather permitting - up from 16 available days in 1994.

Idaho already limits burning to a 45-day period with a total of 16 days of actual burning.

Representatives of the Sandpoint Clean Air Coalition and Kootenai County Clean Air Coalition said they could not sign a pact that does not limit the number of burn days in Spokane County.

Yvonne Bucklin, regional director of the American Lung Association of Washington and a summit member, was undecided. She worried that the county’s 15,000 asthmatics and sufferers of other respiratory ailments would not be satisfied with an agreement that allows farmers to regulate themselves.

“The public fears that this will be a holocaust of smoke in the air every single day,” she said.

xxxx