Grass Growers’ Pollution Statistic Called Misleading

Spokane County bluegrass growers say a proposed field burning ban is unfair because they generate only 1 percent of the air pollution in the county.

But their claim is misleading, say state and local air quality regulators.

While road dust and wood stoves are the largest sources of particulate pollution, regulators estimate that field burning generates more particulates than the county’s 60 largest commercial and government polluters combined.

The growers began using the 1 percent figure after Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority voted in December to phase out grass field burning, probably within seven years.

“Should we be considering a phase-out of automobiles and wood stoves?” bluegrass farmer John Cornwall asked SCAPCA earlier this month.

Cornwall, president of the Intermountain Grass Growers’ Association, said growers think they’re being punished when other pollution sources are worse.

It’s true the growers account for only 1 percent or less of the pollution generated within the urban area. The 1990 statistics used to calculate that percentage list 117 acres of grass fields within the county’s “non-attainment” area, the urban core that flunks federal standards for carbon monoxide and particulates.

In 1990, burning those 117 acres generated 1.4 tons of particle pollution, SCAPCA said. By last year, there was no grass smoke generated in the urban area because fields had disappeared due to development.

“Now, there isn’t any grass burned in the metropolitan area,” said Ron Edgar of the Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority.

But growers burn more than 25,000 acres countywide. They generate roughly 800 tons of particle pollution each year, Edgar estimated - far more than 1 percent of the county’s total.

A spokeswoman for the grass growers association said she wasn’t sure the 1 percent figure the growers have been using is accurate.

“I’d have to do my homework,” said Martha Dailey.

“But the point grass growers want to make is the biggest offender in Spokane County is unpaved and paved roads. If you compare apple to apples, we come out as a very small portion of the (pollution) pie,” Dailey said.

Grass field smoke can foul Spokane’s air when winds blow the smoke into the city, or temperature inversions trap it close to the ground.

The 800 tons is much more than the particulates produced by the county’s largest single industrial polluter, Kaiser Aluminum Corp.

According to a 1993 state emissions inventory, the largest industrial polluters were Kaiser’s Mead works, at 197 tons of particulates annually, and its Trentwood facility, at 84 tons.

Particulate emissions for the county’s 60 largest polluters totaled 602 tons in 1993, the most recent statistics available. The emissions from all the county’s industrial and commercial smokestacks totaled 1,200 tons.

Wood stoves generated 1,500 tons of particulates that year.

Direct comparisons between industry and grass growers aren’t usually made, because industrial pollution comes from smokestacks and field burning comes from dozens of farms scattered throughout the county.

The pollution generated by grass smoke, wood stoves and industry is made up of tiny dust particles less than 10 microns in diameter. Those particles can go deep into the lungs, aggravating lung disease.

While the industrial pollution is spread out over 365 days a year, and wood stove smoke is heaviest in fall and winter, the grass seed industry releases all 800 tons of pollutants within a short period in late summer.

In 1995, burning occurred on 11 days within a 47-day burning window.

SCAPCA tries to allow burning only on days when there is enough wind to blow the smoke away from urban areas, Edgar said.

That’s especially important when thousands of acres are burned at once.

“If they released that much pollution under an inversion, we’d have people choking, and not just sick people,” Edgar said.

Other industries have paid for costly emissions controls required by federal and state laws, said Grant Pfeifer, an air programs chief for the state Department of Ecology.

Automobiles are a huge concern, and people are paying for cleaner gas, transit systems and more stringent emissions controls, he said.

Spokane flunked federal carbon monoxide standards four times last year when only one violation is allowed, and must try harder to clean up its air.

“Trying to convince people that grass field burning doesn’t cause air quality concerns by saying there are other air quality concerns doesn’t work,” Pfeifer said of the grass growers’ complaints.

“I don’t think anybody’s being unfairly picked on or singled out.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Graphic: Spokane’s air quality