The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 10 has called a burn ban on all outdoor burning starting Monday, January 14, 2013 on the following reservations due to stagnant air conditions and elevated monitor readings as a high pressure system settles in the region. This burn ban will be in place until further notice.
The burn ban will be in effect for the following reservations:
- Chehalis Reservation, Washington
- Muckleshoot Reservation, Washington
- Nisqually Reservation, Washington
- Puyallup Reservation, Washington
- Stillaguamish Reservation, Washington
- Tulalip Reservation, Washington
When an EPA burn ban is in place it applies to all outdoor and agricultural burning, including camping and recreational fires within reservation boundaries. Ceremonial and traditional fires are exempt from the outdoor burn ban.
EPA also requests that reservation residents reduce all sources of air pollution, uncluding excess driving and idling of vehicles, and the use of woodstoves and fireplaces, unless it is your only source of heat.
Click here to read the full EPA announcement.
Over the weekend, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency also issued Stated 2 burn bans for Pierce, King and Snohomish counties.
During a Stage 2 burn ban:
- No burning is allowed in ANY wood-burning fireplaces, wood stoves or fireplace inserts (certified or uncertified) or pellet stoves. Residents should rely instead on their home’s other, cleaner source of heat (such as their furnace or electric baseboard heaters) for a few days until air quality improves, the public health risk diminishes and the ban is cancelled. The only exception is if a wood stove is a home’s only adequate source of heat.
- No outdoor fires are allowed. This includes recreational fires such as bonfires, campfires and the use of fire pits and chimineas.
- Burn ban violations are subject to a $1,000 penalty.
All burn bans were in place until further notice.
