Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Grass Smoke Ban Is Back On Track

Karen Dorn Steele The Associated Press Contributed Staff writer

With Gov. Gary Locke’s blessing, the state Department of Ecology is speeding up the search for alternatives to bluegrass field burning so the polluting practice can be banned next year.

The department already has cut field burning by 40,000 acres in the past two years.

To eliminate all burning, the agency must approve a commercially viable alternative.

That decision will be made by next March, Ecology Director Tom Fitzsimmons said Wednesday in Spokane.

The department also plans to levy up to $100,000 in fines against five Eastern Washington farmers who continued, despite the phaseout, to burn their fields illegally during the past two years, Fitzsimmons said.

The department’s new resolve on the burning phaseout came after pressure from Spokane.

In August, clean-air activists and doctors in Spokane accused the agency of waffling on the issue after Fitzsimmons said he wasn’t sure he could keep to a three-year phaseout timetable set in March 1996 during the Lowry administration.

Concerns about Ecology possibly backsliding on the issue prompted an avalanche of calls to the agency’s Olympia offices and the governor’s office.

Fitzsimmons said he’s personally answered hundreds of letters, calls and e-mail from Spokane residents who urged him not to delay the phaseout announced by his predecessor, Mary Riveland.

The Spokane mail campaign gave him a “sharpened empathy” for people who suffer from smoke pollution and convinced him to add more staff to resolve the controversy, Fitzsimmons said.

“I have been very concerned about the people of Spokane who experience breathing problems because of the smoke,” Locke said in a news release. “State government needs to rethink its priorities and mobilize its resources to serve the greatest possible public good.”

But a grass industry group is skeptical that a ban can be put in place by early next year.

No alternative to burning is likely to be found soon, said Linda Clovis of the Intermountain Grass Growers Association, based in Post Falls. The group represents farmers who grow grass seed on 60,000 acres in Eastern Washington.

“At this point in time, not one researcher has found they are close to finding a solution,” Clovis said.

That will make it hard to certify an alternative by next year, she said.

Grant Pfeiffer of Ecology’s Spokane office, said the agency can certify several alternatives to field burning under the state Clean Air Act.

They include: raking fields to remove bluegrass straw stubble that causes heavy smoke when burned; rotating crops to get better seed yield, and telling farmers to grow crops other than bluegrass.

If no alternative is found, farmers would still be allowed to burn one-third of their fields next year, or about 20,000 acres.

In October, a Whitman County farmer became the first to be fined under the new law when he was penalized $8,070 for burning his entire 70-acre bluegrass field last year.

Harvey Schneidmiller of Schneidmiller Bros. in St. John, Wash., should have left one-third unburned as the law required, Ecology said.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WILL BURNING STOP? Questions and answers on the grass-burning issue: Q. The Department of Ecology plans to ban bluegrass field burning in Washington state in 1998. What could hold up that timetable? A. If the state doesn’t approve a commercially viable alternative. Q. Will that happen? A. The state will decide next March. The Intermountain Grass Growers Association says no alternative will be found soon. Q. What if the state decides to allow burning? A.If no alternative is found, farmers still would be allowed to burn one-third of their fields next year, or about 20,000 acres.

The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Karen Dorn Steele Staff writer The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This sidebar appeared with the story: WILL BURNING STOP? Questions and answers on the grass-burning issue: Q. The Department of Ecology plans to ban bluegrass field burning in Washington state in 1998. What could hold up that timetable? A. If the state doesn’t approve a commercially viable alternative. Q. Will that happen? A. The state will decide next March. The Intermountain Grass Growers Association says no alternative will be found soon. Q. What if the state decides to allow burning? A.If no alternative is found, farmers still would be allowed to burn one-third of their fields next year, or about 20,000 acres.

The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Karen Dorn Steele Staff writer The Associated Press contributed to this report.