02/15/1978 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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r be embodied in a formal agreement between the EPA and DEQ. A preview of the City's study of the issue will be given at today's meeting, with the full report to be presented at the EPA hearing February 24. He said the stand of the City of Eugene today is that the main consider- tilt ation must be concern for the health of our citizens. While burning acreage is clearly a factor, the nature and quantity of burning pollutants are also real issues. Stan Long, City Attorney, said this was the third periodic update report regarding the Clean Air Act. It has been the City's position that the Federal Clean Air Act set standards for pollution and field burning. Primary standards are designed to assure human health; secondary standards are to ensure the overall pure air. Sometimes the Eugene air has been in violation of the standards, noting one source to be field burning. The City had asked the EPA to issue notice of violation on field burning and to reject state amendments because they were not justified. Both have occurred. For the City to continue to take a sound position, it has employed an environmental analyst, Terry Smith, to provide technical data. The full technical report on field burning will be presented February 24 at a state hearing on burning rules for next year. Mr. Smith will review that report for Council today. Terry Smith said the summary of data collected indicated four proposi- tions: 1) people suffer adverse health effects due to smoke intrusions during the field burning season; 2) the particulate intrusion from field burning is much greater than previously estimated; 3) that par- ticulate intrusion from field burning is at least as great as that from slash burning; and 4) there are practical alternatives for re- ducing the impact of field burning in Eugene. e Mr. Smith said, in regard to the health effects during the field burning season, Eugene's air quality is dirtier than defined by the Clean Air Act and exceeds what is allowable by the secondary standards. In addition, Eugene's air was dirtier than the primary standards for photochemical oxidants. He said since Eugene's air has more ozone, it is a given fact there will be some kind of health effects. Present data on the health effects of suspended particulates indicates that the annual standard is protective of the public's health and includes a small safety factor. However, current findings indicate that the present 24-hour standard may not adequately protect the public's health. Mr. Smith had re-examined a 1977 EPA study, in which EPA determined field burning had very small but definite impact on particulates in the Eugene area during 1974 to 1976. Mr. Smith found the study underestimated the impact to Eugene by about 300 percent. He said many reasons for the underestimation could be enumerated, with one being the inappropriate methods of collecting particulates. He had used three different methods to estimate the impact of field burning on Eugene. He said it reaffirmed the fact that field burning does contribute 2/15/78--2 - 103 I .