New outdoor burning ban upsets many in rural areas
WENATCHEE – A new ban on outdoor burning has upset countless residents in north-central Washington who are facing the loss of a longtime spring ritual.
Under a regulation which took effect Jan. 1, outdoor burning is illegal in any municipality with at least 1,000 residents and in the surrounding urban growth areas.
Enforcement is up to the state Ecology Department, but it’s up to fire departments, municipal governments and county planning agencies to notify residents.
A similar ban has been in effect for larger cities and towns such as Wenatchee and East Wenatchee since 2000, but in many smaller communities outdoor burning has long been as seasonal a practice as spring housecleaning.
“We’ve had people tell us, ‘I’ve been burning here for 50 years, and I’m going to continue to burn,’ ” said Chelan County Fire District 3 Capt. Bill Horner of Leavenworth. “I just go out and say, ‘You’re burning, this is the law and you can be fined $10,000 a day for the fire.’
“It’s education and most people are pretty good with it, but change is hard and some people don’t accept it very well.”
Besides the fines, violators could be assessed the cost of putting out the fire.
Joye Redfield-Wilder, an Ecology spokeswoman in Yakima, said the agency is seeking $2 million from the Legislature to help local jurisdictions with solid-waste programs, which could include chipping and mulching programs as alternatives to burning.
“We know that during this transition period, there’s going to be rough spots,” Redfield-Wilder said.
Some of the rough spots involve bewildering boundaries and conflicting regulations.
In some neighborhoods on the outskirts of Leavenworth, for example, the urban growth area border line runs down the middle of a street, so burning is prohibited on one side only. Within the town of Leavenworth, free municipal pickup of yard waste is limited to a few bags twice a year, while in the growth area around the town residents must haul yard waste to a landfill and pay to dump it.
Moreover, because the state declared Chelan County an emergency area from flooding and high winds, residents may obtain a special permit from the state agency to burn storm debris, which Horner said leaves some neighbors confused.
Others are upset because the U.S. Forest Service is planning controlled burns to ease the summer fire danger.
Cashmere municipal utility clerk Kathy Clayson said she hadn’t heard many complaints from within the town, where burning has been banned for years and there’s a mulch center to receive yard waste, but nearby it’s another story.
“We have people complaining that they are in the urban growth area, and they can’t use the mulching center,” Clayson said.
She directs them to the local dump, leading officials like Rock Island Mayor Russell Clark to fear that the burn ban will speed up the filling of landfills.
“You’re taking up time on the landfill with my rose bushes,” Clark said, “but then I have family members with allergy problems, so I understand the problem, too.”