The Burning Truth
By Lily Auliff

While residents of southeast Houston contend with the brunt of industrial pollution, suburbanites are dealing with their own air pollution issue: outdoor burning. Many suburban Texans can legally burn trash and leaves. And, as developers clear more and more land, trees and other debris are gathered and burned, with smoke inevitably wafting into nearby neighborhoods.

Cathy Patterson of Cypress has been fighting outdoor burning in her upscale subdivision for more than five years. Patterson’s neighbors, who live on 1- to 2-acre lots, burn leaves and trash regularly. “It’s horrible. You can’t breathe when the smoke gets in your yard and your house,” she says. It’s so bad, the Pattersons have considered moving out of state.

Part of the problem is that many people don’t know what the laws concerning outdoor burning are.

First, state law prohibits individuals from burning trash if they live inside any city corporate limit or if trash pick-up service is provided by the municipal utility district. Many neighborhoods also have deed restrictions that prohibit burning.

Companies that acquire an outdoor burn site approval from TNRCC – such as developers that are clearing land – must use a trench burner, a portable device that burns large items in a pit. If used properly, trench burners can reduce air emissions significantly.

And, no one may burn any materials, even using a trench burner, between 6 pm and 8 am.

Citizens are further protected under the state’s “nuisance law,” which says t

“It’s horrible. You can’t breathe when the smoke gets in your yard and your house – Cathy Patterson

hat “no one can discharge (emit) any air contaminant(s) in such concentration and of such duration which may tend to be injurious to or to adversely affect human health or welfare, animal life, vegetation, or property, or as to interfere with the normal use and enjoyment of animal life, vegetation, or property.”

To report violations of any of the above regulations, citizens can call either the City of Houston Bureau of Air Quality Control at 713-640-4200 (inside city limits) or Harris County Pollution Control (HCPC) at 713-920-2831 (outside Houston but in Harris County); those outside Harris County can contact their own county’s environmental division. These offices will send an investigator to the scene to issue a warning or a violation notice. Repeat offenders can be taken to civil court.

Do these agencies do a good job of enforcing the law? “I think we’re doing the best we can,” says Jim Taylor, operations manager at HCPC, although he notes that his investigators only have time to respond to citizen complaints and don’t generally do routine inspections. For this reason, Taylor encourages the public to call in. “If we don’t get a complaint about a situation, there is not much that we can do about it,” he says.

Patterson says that HCPC officials will come to her neighborhood if she calls, but they can do very little to alleviate the problem. “You have to call it in and say it’s a nuisance,” she explains. “And they come out from Pasadena and decide if it is a nuisance - which it always is. Then they go and tell the people who are burning it’s a nuisance and to stop. That’s all they can do.” There is no system in place for issuing fines on-site.

“They [HCPC] say that if it continues and continues, they sometimes can take them to court, but most of the time they won’t,” she adds.

Both HCPC and Patterson feel a more efficient solution would be to pass state legislation that allows individual counties to ban outdoor burning altogether. “I just don’t see a need for outdoor burning in urban counties,” says Taylor. “There are other alternatives.”

Patterson says her neighbors refuse to quit burning because they feel theregulations are infringing on their property rights. “I don’t think things are going to change unless the law changes,” she says.

I just don’t see a need for outdoor burning in urban counties. – Jim Taylor, operations manager at HCPC

“Everybody that we talk to that comes from a different state says you can’t even light a match outside,” notes Patterson. “They’re shocked about what we can do down here.”

A countywide ban would stop both trash burning and trench burning. Currently, trench burning is the cheapest way to clear land, explains Taylor. Banning burning would force cleaner disposal methods, such as landfilling.

A burn ban would also save HCPC a lot of time and tax dollars. Investigators now spend a significant number of hours trying to figure out if someone burning their trash actually has access to trash pickup, driving to various burn sites, and inspecting trench burners to see if they are operating properly, Taylor notes. Not allowing any outdoor burning would simplify the enforcement process and free up investigators to deal with other air pollution issues.