Field burning study the first step to a decision.

Byline: Stephanie Hallock For The Register-Guard

At its Thursday Aug. 16 meeting, the Environmental Quality Commission took up the issue of field burning for the second time this year. The room was packed with field burning opponents and proponents armed with data, studies and personal stories - compelling tales of doctors whose patients suffer during the field burning season, and of farmers who depend on this agricultural practice for their livelihoods.

The Lane County Board of Commissioners requested that the commission use its authority to ban field burning based on "continuing and urgent threats to public health," and referenced the 2008 Olympic Trials in Eugene as a critical issue. The grass seed industry representatives countered that banning field burning not only would cripple the industry, but also contribute to the use of farming methods that could produce more harmful air and water pollutants.

Balancing the interests of all Oregonians is the greatest challenge of government - a challenge that government cannot undertake effectively without the help of involved citizens.

That is why the commission declined Lane County's request to ban field burning and elected instead to direct the Department of Environmental Quality to engage with citizens and stakeholders in an inclusive discussion of field burning, and to request resources from the Legislature to study the health effects and alternatives to field burning.

Some might be skeptical of another study. In the past five years or so,there have been hundreds of new medical studies done on fine particulate pollution and health effects. There is a large body of new medical research available today that was not available 10 years ago, when the field burning program last was evaluated.

The Environmental Protection Agency has used these studies to justify lowering, thereby making more protective, the federal 24-hour particulate-matter standard. But the EPA does not address short-term impacts from smoke.

The study proposed by the EQC will allow us to pull together and critically evaluate all of the latest medical research and see what "state-of-the-science" says about short-term health risks. The DEQ needs this critical look at the latest science in order to provide the commission with solid, science-based information.

Our hope is that the public discussion of the field burning issue will begin to bridge the chasm between field burning opponents and supporters with more complete data, information, science and expertise. We do not have enough information at this time to know if particulate pollution is primarily a product of field burning, home wood stoves, dust or a combination of any number of pollutants not yet defined. A study, and a deliberative fact-finding process, may well afford us the opportunity to assess some of the broader particulate pollution problems in the Willamette Valley.

But deliberative processes - inclusive processes, public processes - take time. This will undoubtedly be disappointing to many. Particulate pollution in the Willamette Valley is an acknowledged problem. Engaging the community in a dialogue based on solid, science-based information is an opportunity to work together to improve air quality in the region, regardless of its sources.

Stephanie Hallock is director of the state Department of Environmental Quality.