NORWICH – A potential ban on certain open fires could inconvenience rural residents who’ve grown accustomed to using burn barrels for getting rid of waste material.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is considering extending its air quality rules to make burning rubbish - which includes paper, plastic, leaves and brush - illegal statewide. Currently, such burning is only allowed in towns with populations less than 20,000.
No final decision on the regulation has been finalized yet, a DEC spokeswoman said Wednesday.
Alan Franklin, of Inman Road in the Town of Plymouth, said he uses his burn barrel roughly two to three times a week.
“I think you should be able to burn your papers or brush out back,” said Franklin, adding that if the regulation were passed, there would likely be an impact on him personally. “It’d make a difference. I burn quite a bit of brush and papers.”
If approved, the regulation would allow for small campfires and cooking fires, ceremonial fires, certain types of agricultural waste burning, petroleum-fueled smudge pots, fire training exercises, disposal of hazardous materials by police and controlled burns for forest maintenance.
On outdoor waste burning, Chenango County Environmental Management Council Chairman Bob McNitt welcomes the new ban, citing that waste is different today than it was when burning was commonly accepted in the past.
“We’re talking about a lot of different chemicals and hazardous materials being emitted into the air, more today than when people in the country were burning 40, 50 or 60 years ago,” said McNitt, pointing to dioxin, a documented byproduct of waste burning that reportedly affects people’s respiratory systems and can cause other health problems, as well as other harmful particulate matter emitted from burning paper and plastic. “It’s a real problem.”
Based on a study the council recently conducted, McNitt estimates that about half of the county’s rural residents have burn barrels. Combined with agricultural waste burning, McNitt believes harmful materials make their way into food supplies, something that affects everyone.
Studies offered by the DEC and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency show that dioxin emitted from burn barrels can be harmful to people’s health.
Some local officials are against certain kinds of materials being burned outdoors, but take exception to a state law regulating it.
“I have a burn barrel. I burn papers – that’s all I burn,” said Al Doyle, Town of Guilford Supervisor. “Newspapers, plastics, household wastes and that sort of thing – I’m against. I’m against anything that stinks and causes problems for neighbors.”
Doyle added: “If the DEC passed this regulation, it’s going to fill up the landfills in a hurry.”
Rather than more regulations, Town of Sherburne Supervisor Harry Conley says the state should back off. However, he acknowledges that people should rely more on common sense and burn in a responsible manner.
“It’s not a great thing to do,” said Conley, of outdoor burning. “But I have a thing against so many regulations coming from people from somewhere else to tell us how to do things here. That bothers me.”
County Code Enforcement Officer Bruce Bates said his department gets quite a few calls related to outdoor burning. However, under codes jurisdiction, he said it is difficult to enforce regulations unless he can actually witness a violation. Violations include a barrel being too close to a structure or the emission of an “obnoxious odor.”
“Most of our cases are referred back to the DEC,” said Bates. “We’ll go to a complaint and say ‘Stop it.’ If they don’t, we contact the DEC. We tell you to stop, the DEC says, ‘Here’s a ticket.’”
Plymouth Town Councilman Gary Simpson, who has a state license to burn deceased birds on his Pheasant Farm, said he sees burning plastic and harmful materials outdoors as a problem, and would support a ban on such burning.
“No, I really don’t care to see that burned,” said Simpson. “I’d be for it.”
McNitt said similar proposals have been offered and failed before.
“We’ve been down this road before,” said McNitt. “I’ll reserve judgment to see how far they go.”