Controlled burn goes a little off course

SMELTERVILLE — Large plums of white and black smoke could be seen rising from the Page Wastewater Treatment Plant earlier this week after an apparent controlled burn veered in a direction it shouldn't have.

South Fork Coeur d'Alene River Sewer District Manager Joe Close explains that employees began burning on the east side of the facility around noon on Tuesday.

"They were doing it to control the weeds around the lagoons there," he said. "We've spent hundreds and hundreds of hours weed eating those things."

SFSD started the practice of burning the weeds last year, as it was a much more efficient way of getting rid of them compared to other means.

It was around 3 p.m. that larger and darker than normal plumes of smoke started rising from the facility and prompted a check-in by fire crews from Shoshone County Fire District No. 2. The change in smoke color and thickness was spurred by the fire when it went off its prescribed path and made its way to the treatment plant's "boneyard" near the east fence.

Close explained that the boneyard is filled with excess/old items that were left over after the treatment plant was built and other supplies such as manhole covers, hoses and pipes.

"It was not supposed to burn there," Close said.

When the News-Press arrived on scene around 3:15 p.m., no sewer district employees could be found in the immediate area, but did show up 5-10 minutes later. The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality and the Idaho Department of Lands do not require that individuals stay on-site during a controlled burn and no permits are needed to burn during this time of the year.

By 4:30-5 p.m., the fire had burned itself out — but not before it got a hold of certain combustible boneyard materials.

The incident at the treatment plant has prompted an IDEQ investigation into whether or not there was open burning of restricted materials that day.

IDEQ Cd'A Region Air Quality Manager Shawn Sweetapple states that the sewer district has received complaints from them in the past regarding the burning of restricted materials at the facility and have been sent warning letters urging them to stop or face penalties.

Under open burning laws, the burning of most processed or manufactured materials is prohibited. These include:

• Garbage from food preparation

• Dead animals or animal waste

• Junk motor vehicles or parts

• Tires or other rubber materials

• Plastics

• Asphalt

• Tar and petroleum materials

• Paints

• Preservative-treated wood

• Trade waste (commercial, industrial or construction)

• Insulated wire

• Pathogenic (disease-causing) waste

• Hazardous waste

Close stated that no burn piles were active that day at the site and the damage to the boneyard equipment was a result of the controlled burn going off course.

As for notifications being made before burning, Sweetapple explains that IDEQ's rules can be a little funny.

"If they are doing fence line or ditch burning, they don't necessarily have to inform us. If they are doing a plot of land, they are supposed to inform us," Sweetapple said.

Neither the IDEQ, nor SCFD No. 2, were notified of that particular burn on Tuesday.

Close explained that he normally calls SCFD No. 2 and/or Panhandle Health with a notification (which the district is not required to do with those entities), but it simply didn't happen this time around.

"The guys tried to get a hold of me and then they decided it would be OK since we did it last year," he said. "We learned our lesson. We're going to contact the fire department if we ever think about doing that again and the guys know it."