Inclusion of trench and air curtain burners in the agricultural chipping subsidy.

The current chipping program is proving way too expensive for the smaller farms to employ. The rational at the time was that the chips could be tilled back into the land for composting. It was found that tilling these large amounts of chip wastes back into the ground would rob the soil of its nutrients for as long as five years creating a need for large amounts of chemical fertilizer to be added. It was also found that pathogens such as fire blight could be inadvertently spread through healthy ground this way. Due to these facts the chips have to be hauled away for disposal further adding to the costs both financial and environmental.

This has leads to increased open burning in the very narrow venting time frame. Due to the narrow window of time created by the venting index there is an ever increasing number of agricultural burns happening in these few time slots. This is creating increased smoke loads.

The use of air curtain burners and trench burners greatly reduces the smoke created during the burning of waste materials.

I AM PROPOSING THAT:

We include in the chipping subsidy the use of trench burners and air curtain burners; and to expand that use to include the wastes from land clearing for agricultural purposes.

There is currently one contractor in the area planning to offer this service and with this subsidy I believe others contractors will join.

There are a great many other such articles on this topic including the effect on soils from the various processes.

The burning season is rapidly approaching but it is possible to have this program in place before the season starts and greatly improve the conditions during this time.Should you require more information please feel free to contact me

Rick Knodel

RDOS Director Area C

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