Air Quality and Agricultural
Burning
The USDA
Agricultural Air Quality Task Force (AAQTF)
has made recommendations on an agricultural
burning policy. AAQTF was created in accordance
with Section 391 of the Federal Agriculture
Improvement and Reform (FAIR) Act of 1996,
which directed the Chief of the Natural
Resources Conservation Service (NRCS),
a USDA agency, to establish a task force
to address agricultural air quality issues.
The AAQTF Agricultural Burning Policy recommends
that states and tribes adopt a smoke management
program (SMP) to reduce the public health
and welfare impacts of using burning in agricultural
production. The SMP is implemented through
an agricultural burning manager (ABM)—the
air quality agency or designated authority
responsible for managing agricultural burning
at the state, local, or tribal level.
The policy is founded on two basic principles:
- allow the use of fire as an accepted
management practice, consistent with good
science, to maintain agricultural production,
and
- protect public health and welfare by
mitigating the impacts of air pollution
emissions on air quality and visibility.
The recommended SMP is two-tiered. De
minimis fires, as established by the
ABM, are exempt.
Tier One: Tier 1 is a voluntary
program for areas where agricultural burning
rarely causes or contributes to air quality
problems. The SMP establishes conditions
(time of day and year, meteorological conditions,
safety parameters, type of burn, maximum
number of acres, etc.) under which agricultural
burning can occur. It is essentially a permit
by rule.
Tier Two: Tier 2 is a more
structured program than Tier 1 and is designed
for areas where agricultural burning contributes
to Particulate Matter National Ambient Air
Quality Standards violations or visibility
impairment in Class I federal areas (areas
set aside under the Clean Air Act to receive
the most stringent protection from air quality
degradation). The SMP would include a process
for authorizing/granting approval for agricultural
burns and establish criteria for burn/no-burn
decisions. Detailed permitting requirements
such as a real-time meteorological assessment
for burn decisions, air quality monitoring,
public notification, and enforcement requirements
would likely be included in a Tier 2 SMP.
The policy also recommends additional research
in the following areas:
- Tthe ability to predict downwind concentrations
of particulate matter utilizing various
modeling techniques,
- Evaluating the applicability of current
sampling techniques to agricultural burning,
- Determining accurate emission factors,
- Evaluating techniques to reduce emissions
of material determined detrimental to human
health and visibility, and
- Developing alternatives to agricultural
burning.
The complete
policy is available for more information.
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