Check before you burn; ban now expanded

This year, people in small cities and towns will be prohibited from burning their yard waste for the first time since Washington passed tougher air pollution laws in 1991.

Waste burning in rural Spokane County started Friday and is allowed through Monday and again next weekend. But in addition to the larger cities where burning has been banned for several years, the no-burn area is now extended to all incorporated cities and towns and their corresponding urban growth areas.

Extending the burn ban is the final step in the phaseout of outdoor burning required by the Washington Clean Air Act, said Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority spokeswoman Lisa Woodard.

The agency has notified the affected cities and residents with mailings and fliers for three years, Woodard said.

In case anyone didn’t get the message, SCAPCA employees will be watching for illegal fires and responding to complaints during the burn periods.

Even though burning is allowed only eight days out of the year, many people in outlying areas rely on the fires as a cheap, easy way to dispose of branches, needles and other organic matter that accumulates on their property.

“The people who are really concerned are the small cities,” said Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville. “It’s not cost effective to start chipping/recycling operations when you have no volume.”

Hauling or dumping yard waste can get expensive, Schoesler said, and for many homeowners in his rural district, there is nowhere nearby to take it.

“When a tumbleweed blows in the size of my desk, the best alternative is to burn it,” he said.

In Rockford, home to about 500 people, up to 40 residents used to apply for permits to burn yard waste each year, said Town Clerk Darlene LaShaw.

Between 20 and 30 people in parts of the fire district out of town usually obtain burning permits, she said.

“There has been a lot of interest in wanting to burn,” she said.

With the support of Schoesler and other rural lawmakers, bills in the Legislature this year have sought to loosen the burning rules. One recently passed in the Senate would exempt some small towns in the state from the ban until 2008.

For this burning period, though, the rules are clear: no fires in town.

In those areas where the fires are allowed, yard and garden debris from residential property can be burned only between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. and must be at least 50 feet from buildings and other combustible surfaces. Only one pile may be burning at a time, and piles can be no larger than 3 feet in diameter and 2 feet high. The fire must be attended at all times, and burn barrels are prohibited.

People who plan to burn in Fire District Nos. 2, 5, 11 and 12 should contact their fire department for burn permits.

Permits to burn slash and other material from acreage outside of improved yards are handled by the Department of Natural Resources at (509) 684-7474.

For more details and for a map of new no-burn area, visit www.scapca.org/outdoor_burning.asp or call (509) 477-4727.