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4 <br /> • performing on-site grinding of materials <br /> What is the estimated amount of land cleared on an annual basis for agriculture activities? <br /> According to the Cooperative Extension office, the best available estimates indicate about 75 <br /> acres/year are cleared for agriculture related uses. It is believed that landclearing activities would <br /> occur in the range of 3-5 acres per clearing event. <br /> How could the ordinance be modified to make specific accommodation to the agriculture <br /> community? <br /> According to the County Attorney, any prohibition of burning of landclearing debris utilizing this <br /> ordinance must apply equally to the agriculture community and those other sectors,primarily the <br /> development community. The County Attorney's opinion is that the ordinance•could not be <br /> modified as to provide preferential treatment to a specific sector of the community. Therefore, the <br /> Board could proceed to prohibit all burning of landclearing debris,regardless of its origin. <br /> Alternatively, the Board could proceed with an ordinance that does grant preferential treatment to <br /> the agriculture community, until such a time as the ordinance is successfully challenged through <br /> litigation. <br /> We understand that it would be possible to approach the issue of prohibiting burning from another <br /> perspective. The agriculture community could possibly achieve their goal of avoiding the <br /> prohibition of agriculture related burning by lobbying the legislature for the elimination of the <br /> division to Orange County relating to the split legislative precincts, which if successful, would <br /> allow Orange County to advance its interest in controlling open burning through utilization of the <br /> Development Ordinance. This would achieve the BOCC's goal of prohibiting development related <br /> burning,while at the same time not regulating legitimate agriculture landclearing activities. While <br /> state law would allow such a development ordinance related method of regulating open burning, the <br /> split precincts provide a legal impediment to the County proceeding in this manner. <br /> The ordinance could also be constructed so as to define the prohibition of open burning so as not to <br /> include air curtain burning. Specific conditions could be included in the ordinance for this type of <br /> burning to restrict its use, including a requirement of air curtain burning permits. However, <br /> consistent with the attorney's previous opinion, the air curtain burning option would then likely be <br /> available to both the agriculture and non-agriculture community equally. Further review by the <br /> Attorney is necessary to determine whether"air curtain"burning could somehow be available <br /> exclusively to the agriculture community. A more thorough discussion of air curtain burning, <br /> including a detailed description of this burning methodology, an evaluation of the process and <br /> volume reduction capabilities, and a brief discussion of related public health and fire safety issues, <br /> is included in#5 of the next section. <br /> What alternatives to open burning could be made available to the agriculture community <br /> should the BOCC proceed to prohibit open burning of all landclearing debris? <br /> 1. Push the cleared materials into a pile or windrow elsewhere on the property and let the <br /> material decompose. <br /> 2 <br />