State of California
AIR RESOURCES BOARD
Resources Building
First Floor Auditorium
1416 9th Street
Sacramento, CA
October 12, 1979
10:00 a.m.
AGENDA
PAGE
79-23-1 Public Hearing to Consider Revisions to the 001
Agricultural Burning Guidelines and to the Meteorological
Criteria for Regulating Agricultural Burning.
79-23-2 Public Hearing for the Air Resources Board to Consider 146
Assuming, on a Joint Basis, the Powers of the Butte County
Air Pollution Control District and Withholding Subvention
Funds from the District.
Staff Report
ITEM NO.: 79-23-1
Proposed Revisions to the Agricultural Burning Guidelines and the
Meteorological Criteria for Regulating Agricultural Burning
SUMMARY
The staff of the Air Resources Board has recently made proposed
revisions to the Agricultural Burning Guidelines and to the
Meteorological Criteria for Regulating Agricultural Burning.
These proposed revisions were made because:
1. Complaints against agricultural burning have continued
since the last revisions to the Guidelines and the
Meteorological Criteria for Regulating Agricultural
Burning (April 1978).
2. The Environmental Protection Agency has issued a notice
of proposed rule-making regarding its proposed
disapproval of the no-burn day exception provisions of
the State Implementation Plan unless protection of
ambient air quality standards can be provided for in
the plan; currently, the provisions allow special
permits for burning on no-burn days based on economic
considerations only.
3. Assembly Concurrent Resolution 98 caused two public
hearings to be held in the four county area of
Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, and Santa
Barbara. These meetings resulted in the Air Resources
Board staff identifying two issues where it thought
recommendations could be made for changing the
Guidelines.
4. There are some administrative changes to the Guidelines
that need to be made.
4. The mandates of the Guidelines and Meteorological
Criteria for Regulating Agricultural Burning were
reviewed, primarily in accordance with their impact on
agricultural waste burning in the Central Valley of
California, in order to determine where they could be
strengthened so that air quality there could be
improved. This review resulted in a package of
revisions which was reviewed by members of the
agricultural community and air pollution control
agencies on seven separate occasions between November
5, 1978 and February 6, 1979. The package was then
revised by the Air Resources Board staff based upon
input received from these groups and reviewed again on
four separate occasions by the same types of people and
agencies as before in meetings and workshops held
between July 17, 1979 and September 7, 1979.
As a result of the five noted factors, the Air Resources Board
staff proposes the following revisions to the existing Guidelines
and Meteorological Criteria for Regulating Agricultural Burning:
The first proposed revisions would require that backfiring
or into-the-wind strip lighting be used for burning the
waste from certain field crops in the Sacramento and San
Joaquin Valley Air Basins. The second proposed revision
would require that burning of field crop waste begin no
earlier than 10:00 a.m. in the Sacramento and San Joaquin
Valley Air Basins. The third proposed revision would modify
the present burn/no-burn day system in the Sacramento and
San Joaquin Valley Air Basins by (a) allowing additional
acreage of agricultural waste to be burned on newly created
premium permissive-burn days, but not during the rice-straw
burning season; (b) providing notification to the districts
of an air quality standard exceedance in down-wind areas on
a no-burn day for their use in restricting the use of no-
burn day permits on those days; and (c) providing for the
reversal of a burn/no-burn day decision. The fourth
revision would require air pollution control districts in
the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys to adopt specified
criteria for issuing no-burn day exceptions. The fifth
proposed revision would restrict the burning of crop waste
other than rice straw during the rice burning season
(October 1 through November 15) in the Sacramento Valley.
The sixth proposed revisions would require the valley floor
portion of Placer County to adhere to burn/no-burn
declarations for the Southeast Section of the Sacramento
Valley air Basin. The eighth proposed revision would
require adoption of rice straw burning regulations for all
air pollution control districts in the Sacramento and San
Joaquin Valley Air Basins. The ninth proposed revision
would change the North/South boundary lines of the San
Francisco Bay Area Air Basin. The tenth proposed revision
would change the meteorological criteria for agricultural
burning in the San Diego Air Basin. The eleventh proposed
revision would expand the scope of the meteorological
criteria for agricultural burning to include the Lake Tahoe
Air Basin. The twelfth proposed revision would redefine the
term "brush treated" as currently contained in the
Guidelines. The thirteenth proposed revision would require
the Department of Fish and Game to specify the proper amount
of brush treatment when burning for wildlife and game
habitat was being done. The final proposed revisions would
remove the provisions for agricultural burning of cotton gin
waste (which expired January 1, 1979) from the agricultural
Burning Guidelines.
The staff recommends that the Board adopt Resolution 79-70, an
act which would authorize repealing of the current Guidelines and
Meteorological Criteria for Regulating Agricultural Burning and
which would authorize adopting the proposed Guidelines and
Meteorological criteria for Regulating Agricultural Burning,
which contain the revisions noted above. Resolution 79-70
follows this summary.
CONTENTS
Page Number
I. Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .I-1
II. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . II-1
III. Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .III-1
IV. A Proposal for Revision of the Agricultural Burning . . . . . . . IV-1
Guidelines and the Meteorological Criteria for Regulating
Agricultural Burning.
A. Proposed Revisions to the Guidelines Applicable to the . . . IV-1
Sacramento and San Joaquin Valley Air Basins.
B. Proposed Revisions to the Meteorological Criteria for. . . .IV-16
Regulating Agricultural Burning in the Sacramento and San
Joaquin Valley Air Basins.
C. Proposed Revisions to the Meteorological Criteria for. . . .IV-21
Regulating Agricultural Burning in the Sacramento Valley.
D. Proposed Revisions to the Guidelines Applicable to the . . .IV-26
Sacramento Valley Only.
E. Proposed Revision to the Meteorological Criteria for . . . .IV-29
Regulating Agricultural Burning and Pertaining to the San
Francisco Air Basin Only.
F. Proposed Revisions to the Meteorological Criteria for. . . .IV-30
Regulating Agricultural Burning and Pertaining to the
San Diego Air Basin.
G. Request by San Diego County APCD to Make Its Own . . . . . .IV-31
Meteorological Forecasts.
H. Proposed Revision to the Meteorological Criteria for . . . .IV-32
Regulating Agricultural Burning and Pertaining to the Tahoe
Air Basin.
I. Proposed Revision to the Agricultural Burning. . . . . . . .IV-33
Guidelines to Apply Statewide.
J. Proposed for Deletion of Section 80180, Cotton Gin . . . . .IV-35
Waste Burning from the Agricultural Burning Guidelines.
V. Environmental Impact of Proposed Amendments to Agricultural. . . . .V-1
Burning Guidelines and Meteorological Criteria for Regulating
Agricultural Burning.
A. Emission Impact. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .V-1
B. Economic Impact. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .V-3
C. Energy Impact. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .V-5
D. Water Pollution Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .V-6
E. Solid Waste Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .V-6
F. Natural Resources Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .V-6
ITEM NO.: 79-23-2
Consideration of the Air Resources Board's Assuming, on a Joint
Basis, the Powers of the Butte County Air Pollution Control
District and Withholding Subvention Funds from the District.
The staff recommends that the Board assume the powers of the
Butte County APCD for the purpose of conducting its agricultural
burning program. The staff further recommends that the Board
withhold all of the subvention funds that Butte County would
otherwose be eligible to receive in order to finance the
operation of the agricultural burning program by the ARB.