Hearings set this week on field burning deal

A new agreement that allows farmers to continue burning their fields, but only on days when there is little impact on the public, will be discussed at public hearings this week.

Hearings are scheduled in Moses Lake, Spokane, Wenatchee, Walla Walla and Pullman, on the proposed new rules by the state Department of Ecology.

The agreement is intended to end a decade of fighting between clean air advocates and farmers who say they need to burn their fields to produce crops.

“The deliberations were intense and the outcome is truly remarkable,” said Tim Connor of Save Our Summers, a clean air group in Spokane.

Information gathered in the public hearings will be incorporated into a final rule produced by the Department of Ecology in time for the field burning season this fall, officials said.

Gretchen Borck, head of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers, said the agreement provides a workable solution because farmers will still be able to burn, but only on days when harm to others is minimized.

“It’s a tool we need to continue farming,” Borck said.

Wheat farmers will speak on behalf of the agreement at the hearings, she said.

Farmers are still looking for a way to make economic use of wheat stubble, such as converting it into ethanol fuel, she said. But the Northwest does not have a plant to process the stubble.

“We are looking for grants to do a study on and figure out how to bring an ethanol plant to Washington state,” she said.

The conditions in the settlement, reached after tough negotiations over the past year, are technical in nature, describing what criteria the state and local air quality agencies will use in granting permission to burn.

The state ended the burning of Kentucky bluegrass fields in 1999 because of smoke complaints. But it continued to allow burning of other fields. Burning wheat fields removes stubble and weeds and controls disease, and the practice has exploded in the past decade, often sending clouds of smoke over Eastern Washington communities.

The new rules create a regional monitoring network to measure the amount of small particulate matter in the air. The fine soot particles from burning can cause severe health problems. Monitoring stations will be created in Whitman, Columbia, Adams, Walla Walla, Franklin, Grant and Spokane counties.

Cindy Thompson, Eastern Washington director of the American Lung Association, said the new rules will improve the health of residents.

Small particles can slip through the body’s natural defenses and lodge in the lungs, she said.

“Toxic and cancer-causing chemicals can hitchhike into lungs on particulate matter,” Thompson said.

Children, the elderly and those with respiratory problems are most at risk, she said.

Dr. Michael McCarthy of Spokane is the only pediatric lung specialist between Seattle and Great Falls, and said he sees many patients from throughout the region suffering because of field burning.

The region appears to have a higher rate of asthma than other areas, although scientific studies have not verified that information, McCarthy said.

Connor said the deal does nothing for people who live on the border with Idaho, which still allows lots of field burning.

“The cloud over this important step in Washington comes from Idaho,” Connor said.

Patti Gora of Pullman, who has long been an activist against field burning, said her son has asthma, and that she has known people who have died from the smoke.

“This is a life and death situation for so many of us,” she said. “We are calling on Idaho to step up to the plate and do the right thing.”