Scapca Unveils Grass Burning Plan Proposed New Rules Could Phase Out Burning By 2002

Spokane County air quality regulators unveiled a new proposal Thursday to quench grass field burning.

The plan will be discussed in a public workshop and a formal hearing this spring before it’s written into law.

“Strong efforts” should be made to minimize the impact of Kentucky bluegrass field burning on public health and comfort, the Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority proposal says.

Those efforts include:

A plan to reduce field burning through annual pro-rata acreage reductions.

A permit program that sets a 25,000-acre cap on bluegrass burned this year - 700 acres less than last year - and gradually cuts the acreage to 17,500 by 1999.

A 1,500-acre burning limit on any one day, and a 6,000-acre limit each week to minimize the risks of a major pollution episode.

If the smoke-reduction program succeeds by January 2000, regulators could keep the burning cap at 17,500 acres. But if smoke is still causing problems, clean-air cops could keep cutting - to no grass field burning by the year 2002.

Area grass growers protested the proposal.

“When you’re talking zero burning within 10 years, it removes an industry from this area,” said John Cornwall, president of the Intermountain Grass Growers Association.

A total of 106 farmers grow bluegrass in Spokane County.

“We’re not trying to put you out of business, but to make you conform like other businesses in Spokane,” said Spokane County Commissioner Steve Hasson, the new SCAPCA board chairman.

Clean-air activists said action to curtail field burning is overdue.

“This is a public health concern,” said Yvonne Bucklin of the American Lung Association of Washington.

Other local industries have cut their emissions, said Patricia Hoffman of Save Our Summers, a grassroots group seeking a field burning ban.

“In general, air pollution in Spokane has improved since the ‘70s, except for grass burning,” Hoffman said.

The SCAPCA board invited growers and clean-air advocates to present their own proposals for curtailing burning.

Board member Jan Monaco, Spokane County Medical Society director, urged the board to attend the public workshop, which hasn’t been scheduled. Board members were criticized for failing to attend a similar public workshop last July.

At that hearing, more than 90 percent of the 369 people who spoke or submitted written testimony were against grass burning. About 250 asked that burning be stopped immediately for health reasons.

, DataTimes