Assembly committee supports no-burn rule equity
Representative of dirtiest air basin opposed measure local air district supports

SACRAMENTO – A measure by Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez (D-Shafter) to prohibit agricultural burning on days where air quality has been deemed too unhealthy to light a fire in the fireplace passed out of the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources today, despite a “no” vote from a representative of those who stand to benefit the most.

Assemblymember Danny Gilmore, R-Hanford, voted against Senate Bill 382, even though the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, which oversees the smog-shrouded air basin he represents, strongly supports the measure.  Florez was at a loss to explain Gilmore’s vote.

“When you represent a region where one in six children has to carry an inhaler to school, you do whatever is in your power to help those kids breathe easier,” Florez said.  “I think Mr. Gilmore owes an explanation to the constituents who sent him to Sacramento to protect their best interests and the health of their children.”

The SJVAPCD prohibits lighting fireplace fires on days where air quality has been deemed unhealthy.  Agricultural operations, however, are allowed to continue open-field burning of agricultural waste until pollution has reached much higher levels.

According to a May article in the Bakersfield Californian, agriculture had already burned 711 acres of waste on fireplace “no-burn” days since November alone, and Florez is concerned with the negative health impacts created by this inequity.

“If you are telling me that air quality is such that I should not be spewing smoke into the air, then the farmer down the street should also not be spewing smoke into that same air,” said Florez, who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Air Quality.  “We are all captive to the geography of this air basin, and we all need to do our part to clean the air our children have to breathe.”

Senate Bill 382 will next be up for consideration by the full California State Assembly. 

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For Immediate Release                           Jennifer Hanson
July 6, 2009                                            916-651-4016