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Sac Metro Air District presses for biomass funding as agricultural burning rises
Summary
Staff warned the board that agricultural burning increased during the last fall season and described regional work to convert biomass to fuel, citing state bond dollars and federal hydrogen hub money as potential funding sources.
The Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District board on Jan. 23 heard an update on agricultural burning and regional biomass-utilization efforts and was urged to continue advocacy for state funding to support alternatives to open burning.
District program supervisor Ashley Reynolds said the district issues about 100 agricultural burn permits annually and typically oversees roughly 1,000 acres of burning each year, though activity rose this past fall largely because of vineyard removals. "This past fall burn season, we saw an increase in burning due to favorable conditions," Reynolds said, adding that Sacramento County accounted for about 3 percent of the acres burned in the Sacramento Valley basin this season.
The presentation framed agricultural burning as a coordinated, basin-wide activity managed under the Sacramento Valley Basinwide Smoke Management Plan, which was implemented in 2001 and restricts rice-straw burning and acreage by district. The Basinwide Council (BCC), which includes nine air districts and 11…
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