Air board tells growers to phase out burns by 2025

California’s air quality board voted last week to call for a near-complete ban of agricultural burning by 2025 in the San Joaquin Valley, one of the most polluted regions in the country.

The move to phase out burning is more than a decade in the making for the sprawling, eight-county valley, where growers set fire to hundreds of thousands of tons of waste from vineyards and orchards every year. Burning sends up plumes of particles and gases that drift into farm towns largely made up of Latino residents.

After a four-hour hearing and more than an hour and a half of debate, the air board unanimously approved a resolution directing air board staff to work with the local air district to phase out nearly all burning over the next four years.

The phase-out will mostly affect owners of vineyards and orchards who will have to grind up vines, trees and other waste and mix it into soil, or haul it to composting and biomass facilities.

Growers told the air board that they already struggle to get contractors to chip their waste, and could have trouble paying for the pricier alternatives.

“A small farmer is last in line to get the work done because grinders can’t afford to lose out on the large scale acreage,” Stan Chance, an almond grower near Turlock, told the board at Thursday’s meeting. “The impact on me this last year was having to delay planting a whole year waiting for equipment to show up. That’s a whole extra year without the ground producing income.”

Air board staff estimated that between $15 million and $30 million per year in additional state, federal and local funds might be needed to cover the cost, and the resolution acknowledged the need for federal and state money to fund alternatives.

Samir Sheikh, executive director of the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control

District, said his district already bans most agricultural burning, but acknowledged that there’s more work to be done. He called the new efforts, which are unique to the San Joaquin Valley, “a bold strategy” that he hopes will become a model for the rest of the state.

“As you’re aware, our region does face some of the most difficult air quality challenges anywhere in the country,” Sheikh told the air board. “We’re going to really need your assistance as we move forward.”

Environmental justice advocates and local residents said that for communities breathing the smoke, four years is too long to wait. Smoke aggravates asthma and other respiratory problems.

“This law was instituted back in 2003. So really, we’ve had 17 years to get this done. I think that’s basically called procrastination,” Peter Dorian, a Fresno resident, said during public comment. “What we breathe has to take precedent over anything else.”