Volume 143, No. 135 covering the 1st Session of the 105th Congress (1997 - 1998) was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“PRESCRIBED BURN PROGRAMS” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1918 on Oct. 2, 1997.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
PRESCRIBED BURN PROGRAMS
______
HON. JAMES E. ROGAN
of california
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, October 1, 1997
Mr. ROGAN. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing H.R. . The intent of this legislation is to slightly amend the Clean Air Act so that appropriate Federal, State, and local entities may conduct prescribed burn programs in nonattainment areas for a test period of 10 years.
Prescribed burns under limited conditions are essential to the life and health of our forests, to clean air, to the protection and propagation of species, and to increased water yields.
A carefully managed burn program will also lead to reduced floods and mudslides, and to the reduction of overall firefighting costs. These savings would then be made available for a wide variety of highly beneficial activities contained in forest management programs.
With more than 100 years of fire suppression history behind us, we know the current strategy is not working. Wildfires in these older fuel beds occur more frequently. These infernos burn several hundred degrees hotter. They burn larger areas and result in greater damage and costs.
Two decades ago, we spent an average of $100,000 per year to put out wildfires; today we spend $1 billion.
We experience multimillion dollar wildfires in the Angeles National Forest almost every year with the tragic and often unnecessary loss of homes, wildlife, trees, and watershed.
We cannot afford to let wildfires in the Angeles National Forest, and other U.S. forests that abut urban areas burn hotter, bigger, and faster. These types of tragedies grow even more lethal, destructive and expensive to fight.
Prescribed burns, when used wisely, have been effective in reducing the size of wildfires. But we cannot currently use them in our area to the extent necessary because smoke from a prescribed burn is charged against air standards within the framework of the Clean Air Act by Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], the California Air Resources Board [CARB], and the South Coast Air Qualify Management District
[SCAQMD]. As such, prescribed burns are rarely and inadequately approved by the EPA.
The irony in this situation is that the EPA, while regulating all planned, open agricultural burning, forgives, naturally enough, wildfires, which produce 10 to 15 times the emissions and particulates when compared to prescribed forest burns.
We ask that a program of limited prescribed burns in wildland setting be allowed by the EPA for a period of 10 years, with the Forest Service monitoring the results in terms of air pollution, forest survival and health, species diversification, and suppression cost reduction.
Michael Rogers, forest supervisor of the Angeles National Forest, has given his support for limited prescribed burns in an unequivocal and straightforward manner. He said: ``In Southern California we live with a fire-adaptive ecosystem. All our plants and animals have adapted to a high frequency of fires. We can either manage this situation through the proactive use of prescribed fire, or be held hostage by damaging wildfires that result in loss of life, property, natural resources with astronomic costs attributed to both the wildfires and the floods that follow wildfires.''
It is time to use the restorative and productive use of fire to fight fires and to make our forest and living environs safer, cleaner, healthier, and more attractive.
____________________
Alerts Sign-up