Since You Asked: Rice burning rules haven't changed since 2000

Q: I'm noticing our incredibly beautiful October skies, not to mention our lungs and nasal passages, are once again ruined with smoke — I assume from burning rice fields. I thought I remembered people voting to ban the burning, and that farmers had until 2006 to find other methods of ridding their fields of stubble. People literally have to stay inside on these beautiful days or suffer from headaches and asthma. It is intolerably selfish. Is there anything that can be done about it?

A: You could try writing your legislator, or picketing in front of the Capitol wearing a gas mask. But the law on burning rice straw hasn't changed since 2000 and allows farmers to burn up to 25 percent of their fields, according to Jeff Citron of the Feather River Air Quality Management District.

The good news — if it can be called that — is that local farmers on average burn only 10 to 15 percent of their fields, most likely less, Citron said.

As bad as you may have found the smoke this year, it probably had nothing on Oct. 30, 2008, a day that will more or less live in infamy in air quality circles as Black Thursday. Expected winds failed to develop, trapping smoke from ag burns in the Mid- Valley. In just an hour, particulate matter in the air jumped from 26 micrograms per cubic meter to 313.

Unfortunately, such temperature inversions often coincide with harvest season, Citron said.

The trend among farmers, even though it costs them about $40 per acre instead of a few bucks for fuel to burn the stubble, is to chop the stuff into fine particles, disk them into the soil and then flood the field so the material decomposes, he said.

Some rice straw is sold for animal bedding and, in some cases, is even used to build sound barriers along freeways, Citron said.

Farmers who still burn are required to get a permit specifying when, where and how much.

If anything, the rules "are even more conservative than ever," he said.

Citron recommended calling the Feather River Air Quality Management District if you feel agricultural smoke or dust bringing on one of those asthma attacks. The number is 634-7659.

Even a cloud of ag smoke has a silver lining, however. Those beautiful sunsets you may have noticed recently are due to burning, according to Citron.

Since You Asked is published Mondays. Send questions to reporter Rob Young at the Appeal-Democrat, P.O. Box 431, Marysville CA 95901, e-mail him at ryoung@ appealdemocrat.com or call 749-4710.