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Posted: September 3, 2003

Letter Dated: August 11, 2003

To: All Field Crop Growers

Subject: Important Changes to the Conditional Rice Straw Burning Permit Program

2003-2004 Burn Season Registration

The California Air Resources Board, in a July 29, 2003 letter, approved the changes to the Smoke Management Program Plan (Plan) that were adopted by the Sacramento Valley Basin Control Council on June 6, 2003. The changes to the Plan also include the extensive Conditional Rice Straw Burning Permit Program amendments, that eliminates, under specified conditions, the disease inspection requirements for individual fields, and allows for greater flexibility in prioritizing diseased fields for burning.

Beginning this year, the Plan allows each County Agricultural Commissioner to make a county-wide disease determination for all fields in his or her jurisdiction based on the existing (past two years) disease inspection data. Both the Sutter and Yuba Agricultural Commissioner have made specific county-wide findings of disease for all rice fields in Sutter and Yuba Counties and individual field inspections to quantify the disease levels in fields proposed to be burned are not required for the 2003-2004 burn season.

In the past, the program allowed the lesser of 25% of the total planted acreage basinwide, or a pro-rated percentage based on 125,000 burnable acres basinwide, to be listed on a conditional rice straw burning permit. The program has been revised to allow all fields that have been determined to meet the minimum disease significance thresholds to be listed on the permit (all planted rice in 2003 growing season); the statutory restrictions on the total acres burned by each grower will be enforced through the field allocation process. Because the Agricultural Commissioner has determined that all fields meet the minimum disease significance thresholds, all rice fields are eligible to be listed on a conditional rice straw burning permit. As noted above, actual burning will still be limited to the maximum allowable burn percentage for each grower, which is the lesser of 25% of the total planted acreage basinwide or a pro-rated percentage based on 125,000 burnable acres basinwide. 494,000 acres of rice were planted during the 2003 growing season, therefore, growers shall be eligible to burn 25% of their planted acreage. Growers planting 400 or fewer acres may burn all planted acreage once every four (4) years. State law does not allow trading of burnable acres between growers.

Types of Burn Permits.

A.  A standard burn permit will be issued for administrative burning of weeds on ditches, levees and roads, and other non-rice crop waste. The Base fee for the standard permit is $32.50 (covers up to 20 acres) per permit as required by FRAQMD Rule 7.7. The Sacramento Valley Basinwide Control Council (BCC) assessment fee (included in Base fee) is $5.00 per permit. The excess acreage fee is $0.32 per acre.

B. The conditional rice straw burn permit will be issued separately to growers registering rice straw. The Base fee/BCC fee for the conditional rice straw burn permit is also $32.50 (covers up to 20 acres of weeds on ditches, levees and roads, and other non-rice crop waste) per permit as required by FRAQMD Rule 7.7. The BCC assessment fee (included in Base fee) is $5.00 per permit. The acreage fee is $0.65 per burnable acre of rice.

The rice burning season officially begins on September 1^st and FRAQMD’s top priority from that time on will be to issue burning allocations to growers on the ready-to-burn list. It is important that a grower schedule an appointment to register their fields prior to September 1^st.

Be advised any fields which Emission Reduction Credits (ERC’s) have been issued have been placed on a No-Burn List, wherein additional criteria may apply. If you have any questions or to schedule an appointment to register your fields, please contact Jeff Citron at the FRAQMD office at (530) 634-7659, extension 206. We seek to make the field crop registration process as efficient as possible and look forward to working with you.

Sincerely,

ORIGINAL SIGNED

Steven A. Speckert
Air Pollution Control Officer

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