EPA OKs field burning agreement

NORTH IDAHO — The Environmental Protection Agency has signed off on Idaho’s plan for overseeing field burning in northern Idaho, clearing the way for bluegrass farmers to resume the annual ritual as early as September after a one-year hiatus.

The EPA will publish its new rule governing Idaho field burning in the Federal Register on Friday.

“We were waiting for the EPA to say yes,” said Wayne Meyer, one of the remaining bluegrass farmers on the Rathdrum Prairie.

The agency’s decision follows an analysis of a new field burning plan submitted by Idaho earlier this year that was the byproduct of months of negotiations among state environmental officials, farmers and public health activists.

The agency’s approval means the plan complies with the federal Clean Air Act. It marks an important milestone in resolving an issue that frustrated farmers and angered activists who claimed that field burning under the old rules threatened the health of children, elderly and those with respiratory ailments.

“This new program is a great example of what can be accomplished when people with divergent interests work together toward a common goal,” said Toni Hardesty, director of the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality.

“It took a lot of discussion and negotiation, but we were able to develop a program that will meet everyone’s needs,” she said.

Patti Gora, of Safe Air For Everyone (SAFE), indicated the Sandpoint-based health advocacy group approved of the EPA’s decision.

“We were supportive of the changes in the burn plan, and told the EPA that we did approve of the changes that the state had made,” she said.

Among those changes is a reduction in the amount of particulate in the air that will be permitted within a 24 hour period. The Federal Clean Air Act allows for no more than 35 micrograms of particulate matter 2.5 microns or smaller, a measurement commonly referred to as PM 2.5, per cubic meter in a one-day period. Under the EPA approved plan, Idaho will allow for only 75 percent of that amount, or 26.3 micrograms of PM 2.5 per cubic meter in a 24-hour window.

Furthermore, the EPA decision will be implemented statewide, rather than the previous arrangement which affected only Idaho’s 10 northern counties.

“We think this is an advantage,” Gora said, “So that all Idaho citizens have the same protection.”   

The rule’s approval is effective Aug. 31, meaning farmers could begin seeking state permits and torching their fields Sept. 2.

For decades, northern Idaho bluegrass growers have set their fields aflame after harvest to clear crop residue and recharge the soil for the next growing season.

Meyer, who plans on burning his 407 remaining acres of bluegrass, contends that the crop yields are decreased by up to 75 percent without the burning.

Burning was outlawed last year after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in January 2007 that the air quality rules initially approved by the EPA did not allow burning, and that subsequent clarifications in Idaho’s rules to allow burning were legally flawed.

In response, state officials brought farmers and public health advocates to the negotiating table. After months of mediated talks, the parties produced new ground rules for burning and made the permitting process more transparent.

The plan, approved by the 2008 Legislature and Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter, shifted oversight of field burning from the state Department of Agriculture to the DEQ. It also grants the DEQ authority to withdraw burning permits to adjust for weather, gives the public access to permit data and toughens standards for burning near schools and hospitals.

“If the program is carried out in the spirit of the agreement, we should never again see anyone having to die from grass burning,” said Gora of the new tougher standards.

For Meyer, however, who plowed up fields that had been in production for 20 years, the EPA decision to allow regulated burning came late.

“Because we were not able to burn last year, we plowed up 1,700 acres of bluegrass last fall and this spring,” he said.

That land has been replanted with hard red spring wheat. While that crop is re-seeded on an annual basis, Meyer explained that the cost of going back to bluegrass is prohibitive, and that it doesn’t produce a harvest in its first season.

Under the new federal rule, burning is allowed only if farmers follow state rules and obtain a permit in advance. The approval does not extend to burning on tribal lands in Idaho.

“Well, I am not sure the battle is over,” Meyer said.