Spokane Country Growers Torch Fields

Tue., Aug. 20, 1996

Compiled From Wire Services

Spokane County’s Kentucky bluegrass growers torched their fields on Monday for the first time this year.

Farmers burned about 1,000 acres in north Spokane County in the foothills near Mount Spokane, according to the Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority.

People called SCAPCA with complaints about the field burning all day, said Ron Edgar, the agency’s chief technical specialist.

“The first plumes were very visible. We got a number of complaints about burning close to the town of Mead,” Edgar said.

No fields have been torched yet in south Spokane County, where most of the bluegrass fields are located. Idaho farmers began to burn fields on the Rathdrum Prairie last week.

Growers declared their burning season open on Aug. 1. Last week, when smoke from regional forest fires tainted Spokane’s air, SCAPCA didn’t allow grass burning so the existing smoke could dissipate.

On Monday, the wind blew from the southwest to the northeast, away from Spokane.

“We don’t know what we hit in Idaho,” Edgar said.

, DataTimes

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Spokane Country Growers Torch Fields

Jesse Tinsley

Jim Meehan

Molly Quinn

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