Lane Community
College’s Energy
Management and
Renewable Energy
Technician
Programs
are accepting
NEW STUDENTS
for Fall 2007
Monitoring Photovoltaic Performance at LCC
For information about
these programs, call
Roger Ebbage at
(541)-463-3977
news
briefs
BURNING
SMOKES
OUT CITIZENS
Was there a tickle in the back of your
throat last week? Field burning season
began as scheduled after the Fourth of July
and the first burn of the season went amiss.
The temperatures were heading up to
100 degrees last Tuesday when the smoke
from a 55-acre field burn south of
Harrisburg made its way into the lungs of
Eugene residents.
The smoke blew out in the afternoon, but
when winds shifted, it returned to the valley
that evening.
According to the Oregon Department of
Agriculture (ODA), conditions were “opti-
mal” at 11:40 am when the farmer’s burn
was set. But the burn should have been set
with “rapid ignition.” Instead, it began to
smudge. Rather than blow out over the
Coast Range as planned, the smoke headed
to Eugene.
ODA and Lane Regional Air Regulation
Authority (LRAPA) promptly received a
Our Energy Management and
Renewable Energy Technician
programs are funded by EWEB
large number of complaints. An email from
Kathy Coba of the ODA blames the hun-
dreds of complaints on “heightened aware-
ness” of the issue “because of the legislation
and debate on field burning.”
“If this is the agency in charge of the pro-
gram, we are all in trouble. They allowed a
burn knowing this was to be the hottest day
of the year. How incredibly stupid,” says
Charlie Tebbutt of the Western
Environmental Law Center (WELC), one of
the groups working to end field burning in
Oregon.
Data collected on the LRAPA website
from the day of the burn shows a spike over
10 parts per million (ppm) in the fine partic-
ulate matter at Amazon Park and at the
downtown air quality monitoring stations.
A study by the Idaho Department of
Health and Welfare says that increases over
10 ppm in fine particulate matter result in a
significant increase in strokes.
Information from the Idaho report was
sent by WELC to Oregon’s Environmental
Quality Commission, which is currently
being asked to end field burning due to the
health issues it causes for Oregonians.
Oregon Toxics Alliance and WELC will
have a community meeting to discuss the
effects of field burning and a possible law-
suit to stop burning at 7 pm on July 19 in the
EWEB
Community
Room,
500 E. 4th Avenue, Eugene. For more infor-
mation call 465-8860 or go to the www.ore-
gontoxics.org website.
— Camilla Mortensen
an equal opportunity/affirmative action institution
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JULY 19 2007 9