Smoke program under fire following crash

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – The same day four cars crashed in a cloud of smoke blowing across a rural road, the Idaho Environmental Quality director warned the state’s smoke management program in eastern Idaho does not work.

Smoke from a burning field is believed to have contributed to the pileup Sept. 2 east of Interstate 15 on Shelley West River Road.

The crash injured 77-year-old Lyle Tanner of Blackfoot and three others. Tanner died of his injuries two days later.

In a Sept. 2 letter to the Idaho Department of Agriculture, DEQ Director Toni Hardesty said few field-burning activities in eastern Idaho follow established rules.

Her field staff observes the igniting of fields on nonburn days and area farmers sometimes burn more acres than allowed, Hardesty said.

The Agriculture Department regularly posts burn information for bluegrass farmers in northern Idaho on its Web site. It posts nothing for eastern Idaho counties.

“A more immediate enhancement to the smoke management program could be realized by posting of ISDA’s burn decisions for southern Idaho,” Hardesty wrote. “The current practice of making burn status information available only via call-in request is unworkable for our staff. It is difficult for our staff to know if burning they observe in southern Idaho is legal when county burn status information is not posted.”

Farmers must register their fields and call the Agriculture Department the day they want to burn. But few do.

Designating a “burn day” is only the beginning, Agriculture Deputy Director Mike Everett said.

After the farmer registers, the department examines wind direction and velocity, humidity and the location of his field.

Sept. 2 was designated a “burn day” in Bingham County by the state.

The Shelley-area farmer’s name has not been disclosed, but he did not register with the state.

Sherm Takatori, Agriculture smoke management manager, said that if he had called in, he would not have been allowed to torch his field.

There were winds of 20 miles per hour at the time and the field was close to West River Road.

“Our guys would not have let him burn,” he said.

Yet that farmer has nothing to fear because there are no penalties for southern Idaho growers who ignore the rules.

Idaho code says farmers violating the rules for a first time will not be allowed to burn their fields for a year.

A second violation would result in a $10,000 fine.

But the penalties only apply to farmers in 10 northern Idaho counties, where bluegrass field burning is at the center of a huge debate over the health effects of the smoke each summer.

Rep. Dennis Lake, R-Blackfoot and member of the House Agricultural Affairs Committee, said the Legislature set up the two-tiered system because eastern Idaho farmers do not burn their fields as regularly as those in the north.

Environmental Quality and Agriculture officials say the lack of a penalty hampers their abilities to ensure public safety in eastern Idaho.

“There’s nothing we can do other than slap their hand,” Everett said.