Easing Of Grass-Burning Ban Snuffed Out House Committee Refuses To Vote On Limiting State Phaseout

A small band of Spokane doctors, educators and citizens concerned about the health effects of grass-field burning got what they came for Wednesday.

A proposal that would have made Spokane the only county in Washington state to continue a burning phaseout died when it wasn’t given a vote after its hearing in the House Agriculture and Ecology Committee.

Thursday was the final day bills without fiscal notes could be reported out of committee.

Last March, the state Department of Ecology ordered a three-year burning phaseout favored by more than 300 Spokane doctors.

But Columbia Basin bluegrass growers sought an exemption from the phaseout with House Bill 2216.

In the end, the bill served only as food for thought for growers, lawmakers and Ecology officials, said Rep. Gary Chandler, the bill’s sponsor and House committee chairman.

“These people wanted to have a forum,” said Chandler, R-Moses Lake. “I think I had the votes, but I don’t think it needs to go anywhere right now.”

A Spokane clean-air coalition claimed credit for the bill’s demise.

“We killed it,” said Patricia Hoffman, a Spokane Valley veterinarian and the founder of the anti-burning group Save Our Summers.

Cherie Rodgers, Spokane’s newest city councilwoman and a member of the clean-air group, told Chandler that Spokane’s City Council and mayor opposed the bill.

It also lacked support from the Intermountain Grass Growers Association, an industry group with many members in Spokane County that would have been singled out for further curtailments in the acreage they can burn this year and in 1998.

The decision came as a relief for the Spokane delegation, which provided testimony that was both scientific and emotional.

Joan Boorman, her voice cracking, told lawmakers smoke from grass burning destroyed the health of her husband, Jerry, who died Feb. 12 after a series of respiratory complications.

“We became prisoners in our homes again because of the smoke,” she said of last summer’s burning season. “That time took its toll on Jerry.”

Hoffman reminded lawmakers of 21-year-old Aaron Dittmer, a Pullman resident and 37-year-old Sharon Ann Buck of Sandpoint. Both died of respiratory complications - Dittmer in 1994 and Buck in 1996 - after heavy days of grass burning. In both cases, the smoke blew in from different parts of Eastern Washington.

“Smoke will not stop at county lines,” Hoffman said. “Smoke does not know party lines.”

Some growers attending the hearing admitted a lesser degree of harmful effects, but argued the economic and environmental benefits of their crop outweigh public health risks. Others argued phasing out grass burning in Eastern Washington alone wouldn’t eliminate all grass smoke.

“What difference does it make if we end grass burning in Eastern Washington if our tribal lands freely burn and our neighbors in Idaho freely burn?” asked Rep. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville.

Chandler, a hay farmer and orchardist, questioned whether grass smoke was as big of a contributor to health problems as opponents of the bill believe.

“Smoke burning is minor,” Chandler said after the hearing. “(Spokane) is in a valley and everything stays there. Auto emissions are No. 1.”

Chandler said wood burning and dust also contribute significantly to bad air quality.

, DataTimes