Field burning monitor money gains state OK

BOISE - A $606,400 appropriation for the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality to monitor crop residue burning gained final legislative approval Wednesday.

The Senate unanimously approved House Bill 667, which allocates the money for a number of things, including $296,000 for two new full-time air quality monitoring positions, the employment of nine seasonal workers, “and additional hours for meteorological and technical air monitoring staff.” Another item is $120,200 to be spent on “seven air quality monitors, laptop computers, and office equipment.”

Also specified in HB 667 was $190,200 for, according to the bill's fiscal note: “operating expenditures for media outreach, weather forecasting services, vehicle leases, and contract moneys to develop a Web-based information system.”

The money allocated in HB 667 was in conjunction with the passage of this year's HB 557, a bill that codified a negotiated multi-party agreement for managing farm crop residue burning statewide. HB 557, signed into law by Gov. Butch Otter on March 7, shifted the authority for regulating field burning from the Idaho Department of Agriculture to DEQ.