WHAT IS THE BOTTOM LINE ON CLEAN, HEALTHY, AIR?

What's the bottom line on clean, healthy air? Lower emissions -- the sooner the better.

That's the idea behind Washington's new agreement between wheat growers and the state departments of Agriculture and Ecology. Growers have committed themselves to cut field burning in half over seven years. And they're making the first installment this year, on this summer's crop.

Last summer, Washington's wheat farmers set fire to 229,000 acres of stubble, not counting non-permitted burning. This level of wheat-field burning came just as grass-seed growers began to comply with the last stage of their burning phase-out. Ecology achieved that phase-out after years of work to certify reasonable alternatives.

A similar process for wheat could entail years of comparable preparation. Eastern Washington needs relief from agricultural burning this year. Wheat and other cereal-grain crops are Washington's largest source of agricultural smoke. Our contract with the Washington Association of Wheat Growers (WAWG) starts smoke reduction right when we need it: now.

Washington's agricultural-burning program does not rest solely on a voluntary accord, however. The state Clean Air Act requires farmers to meet these conditions before they can use fire in their fields:

• Obtain a permit, and minimize air pollution as much as practical when burning.
• When applying for a permit, they must show that burning is the most reasonable procedure to follow or is otherwise reasonably necessary to carry out the enterprise.
• Proper weather and air quality conditions must exist on the burn day.
• Best management practices (BMPs) to reduce emissions must be followed.

Department of Ecology and local permitting authorities (counties or conservation districts) will devote available resources to enforce this program. Steps this year will include:

• Increased field presence, including on-location investigations and fly-overs.
• Thorough review of each permit application's crop-residue management plan.
• Support and oversight of delegated permitting authorities.
• Coordination of an emissions-reduction allocation system in each county.

The Washington State Agricultural Burning Practices Task Force is completing a new set of best management practices for cereal-grain crops. These BMPs will provide stronger, more-specific direction on when burning is and is not allowed.

The permit program requires using the most current BMPs. Ecology will work with the Cooperative Extension Service, the Department of Agriculture and others to educate farmers about the BMPs and help put them to use.

The focus on agronomic practices will get a further boost by the resources devoted to research under the agreement. The Association of Wheat Growers and the departments of Agriculture and Ecology agree to devote their own resources and cultivate other funding sources to develop new knowledge in three key areas:

• Agricultural practices -- reducing the need for burning while also conserving soil and protecting water quality.
• Inventorying emissions -- gaining better tools to measure, analyze and estimate smoke emissions from field burning.
• Residue uses -- developing uses and markets for cereal straw.

The smoke-reduction targets are floors, not ceilings. The agreement does not establish a "license to burn." After reducing emissions by half, growers do not have carte blanche to emit the remaining half. Research and BMPs may lead to emission reductions beyond 50 percent.

The agreement sets milestones along the way to cutting smoke by half:

• At least 7 percent on average each year.
• At least 21 percent by the end of the third year.
• At least 50 percent by June 30, 2006.

To meet those targets, Ecology will coordinate a system to allocate allowable emissions within the ceilings set in the agreement. Farmers who use non-burning alternatives will benefit increasingly as burning becomes a less available option.

This agreement comes as Washington's agricultural burning program emerges from its start-up phase. When we began requiring permits in 1995, grower awareness and compliance were low. We believe that, in 1998, virtually all farmers who burned were aware that permits are required and applied for them. Before 1998, a significant amount of agricultural burning took place without proper permits.

We now feel confident that the acres burned under permit substantially represent the actual acres burned, which makes last year's permits a reasonable starting point for achieving future reductions.

At Ecology, we care about the air all of us must breathe. We want to stop the summer smoke problem as soon as we can, which is why we went to great effort and expense to certify an alternative to grass-field burning. State law does not offer us an identical solution for preventing burning of cereal-grain crops. Thus, we believe the accord we’ve reached with wheat growers is the fastest way to reduce burning and keep smoke out of the air.

We want this summer to be pleasant and breathable for everyone, and we are pleased that growers have made a public pledge to meet firm targets at set times.

The bottom line is: the days of unfettered field burning are over. Growers are voluntarily accepting responsibility to make necessary improvements. At the Department of Ecology, we will do all we can to make this agreement work.

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