Activists Demand Counties Ban Grass Burning Coalition Attorney Threatens To Take Commissioners To Court If They Don’t Pass Law Against Field Burning

Clean air activists want to drag county commissioners into their fight with grass growers and asked Monday for a law to ban grass field burning.

Clean Air Coalition attorney Harvey Richman sent a letter to commissioners in Bonner, Kootenai and Benewah counties. In it he gave them an ultimatum. Pass a law to stop field burning or be sued.

“I formally demand that you (commissioners) meet with your counsel … and immediately address an appropriate ordinance or regulation putting an end to open field burning by grass growers,” Richman wrote.

The demand for a new law is based on the Americans with Disability Act and a 1995 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Richman said.

The city of Mallard, Iowa, was ordered last year to limit open burning. The smoke forced a child with heart and lung disease to leave the area to avoid becoming ill. The court ruled the child was wrongly being segregated from the community because of her disability.

Richman hopes to apply the same law in North Idaho. A Post Falls girl who suffers from cystic fibrosis says her condition is aggravated by grass smoke. She must leave town when the burning starts to avoid being hospitalized.

“This girl’s case is almost exactly the same as the one in Iowa,” said coalition president Art Long. “We think it’s incumbent upon commissioners to protect the citizenry and pass a law to stop this intrusive smoke.”

County commissioners aren’t that worried about the coalition’s threat. Bonner County Commissioner Dale Van Stone said Richman’s letter already has been discussed and dismissed.

“We will not take this issue up,” he said. “Number one, we have no grass burning in Bonner County. He (Richman) better start with his own county if he wants a law.”

Richman lives in Kootenai County. Commissioners there could not be reached Monday for comment.

Van Stone admits Bonner County receives the bulk of the grass smoke, but says commissioners have no power to stop it. And where would the ban end, Van Stone asked.

“It opens a can of worms. How do you pick and choose who can burn? We have loggers and the Forest Service burning slash piles. I’m sure people don’t like that either.”

Linda Clovis, a spokesman for the Intermountain Grass Growers, also was skeptical but wanted to read the court ruling Richman referred to.

“To me this sounds like an attorney looking for work,” Clovis said. “I wonder if he is trying to make a case to get some clients.”

Asking the counties to pass a law is the latest attack in the coalition’s battle against grass smoke. The group already is monitoring field burning this year. They plan to help people with smoke-related health problems sue individual farmers.

The coalition says annual torching of bluegrass fields in Rathdrum sends unhealthy smoke over the three counties and causes people with respiratory problems to suffer.

, DataTimes