Rice Straw Burning-86
 

 

 

Home.gif (3162 bytes)

Next.gif (3180 bytes)

Back.gif (3162 bytes)

Project Leader and Principal Investigators

Don Schukraft, Nowcasting

Les Fife, Fife Environmental

 

Objective

  • Reduce air pollution from rice straw burning by managing the amount, location, and time of rice straw burning

The California rice industry has invested in research to reduce smoke intrusion into urban areas from rice straw burning since 1970. Soon thereafter additional research began on the control of herbicide residues draining into the state's drains and rivers. Work on rice straw burning intensified in 1981 when a basin-wide controlled burning program was started in cooperation with state and county agencies. in 1984, a cooperative program with the State Department on Food and Agriculture was started to reduce pesticide residues draining from rice fields. Although these problems have not been solved to the satisfaction of all concerned, improvements continue through cooperation of various state agencies, rice growers and those who manufacture and sell rice herbicides.

"Objective: Reduce air pollution from rice straw burning by managing the amount, location, and time of rice straw burning."

The Fall Agricultural Burning Program is a cooperative effort to improve air quality while allowing rice growers to use open field burning to dispose of rice straw. Participants in the program, in addition to the Rice Research Board which helps fund the program, are the State Air Resources Board, which allocates the daily basin-wide acreage; Nowcasting, a division of Weather Network, Inc., which is responsible for daily weather forecasts and collection and dissemination of the hourly observations from the Rice Research Board automatic weather stations; Fife Environmental, a consultant who reviews program operations and analyzes air quality in relation to atmospheric conditions; the Sacramento Valley Air Pollution Control Council, an interagency unit through which the Rice Research Board contracts to enforce the burning program; and the air pollution control officers who manage the county burn programs. This program has been in operation since 1981.

Acreage allocations for burning are based on daily and hourly atmospheric conditions that limit smoke accumulation and intrusion into urban areas and across roadways. Results are measured by many factors including coefficients of haze, airport visibility observations and by complaints received by the Air Resources Board and air pollution control districts.

The 73-day 1986 fall burning period began September 15 and ended November 26. Acreage burned was low at the beginning of the period because late September rains slowed harvest. Drier October conditions were favorable for burning, but stable atmospheric conditions resulted in poor dispersion. This situation prevailed through most of the burning season. There were north winds on 60 percent of the days and south winds on 30 percent. Half of the south wind days had rain or quite stable atmospheric conditions.

Because of the stable atmospheric conditions throughout most of the burning period, less than 2,000 acres of rice straw were burned on a third of the days and less than 5,000 acres on 80 percent of the days. A third of the entire acreage was burned on the six best burn days. More total acres were burned (287,183) during the 1986 burn season than in any year during the six-year history of the program. Although complaints (168) were up slightly from the previous year, the basin-wide coefficients of haze readings were the second lowest in the six-year period.

Some of the past smoke intrusion problems have resulted from violations. Local air pollution control districts adopted more stringent penalties and increased field enforcement in 1986, actions that have the support of the Rice Research Board. Thirty rule violations occurred in 1986, mainly for burning without a permit or without acreage allocation from the Air Pollution Control District. Penalties and fines for rule violations considered the severity and persistence of the violation and any mitigating factors.

The 1986 fall burn program was undoubtedly the most successful one in the past six years. The fall season was not particularly favorable for burning, however, the largest acreage was burned since 1981 with a lower than average coefficient for haze.

 

Home.gif (3162 bytes)Next.gif (3180 bytes)Back.gif (3162 bytes)