AMADOR COUNTY AIR POLLUTION CONTROL DISTRICT

RULE 303 - BURN OR NO-BURN DAY

303.1. Prohibition.
No person required to comply with the provisions of this Rule shall knowingly permit open outdoor fires on days when such burning is prohibited by the ARB, the APCO, or the fire agency with appropriate jurisdiction.

303.2. Notice

A.     A notice as to whether the following day is a permissive Burn day, or No-Burn day, or whether the decision will be announced the following day, is provided by the ARB by 3:00 PM daily for each of the air basins. If the decision is made the following day, it is announced by 7:45 AM. Such notices shall be based on the Meteorological Criteria for Regulating Agricultural Burning, CCR, Article 3, Sections 80180 through 80320 of the Agricultural Burning Guidelines.

B.     Agricultural burning is prohibited on No-Burn days, except as specified in CCR Section 80102, CCR Section 80120, subdivisions (d) and (e), and as may be permitted by a provision in an implementation plan adopted pursuant to CCR Section 89150(c)(5). In authorizing such burning, the APCO shall limit the amount of acreage which can be burned in any one day and only authorize burning when downwind metropolitan areas are forecasted by the ARB to achieve the ambient air quality standards.

C.     Upon request from a permittee through a designated agency, seven days in advance of a specific range improvement burn, forest management burn, or wildland vegetation management burn, at any elevation below 6,000 feet mean sea level, a permissive Burn or No- Burn notice will be issued by the ARB up to 48 hours prior to the date scheduled for the burn. Without further request, a daily notice will continue to be issued until a permissive Burn notice is issued.

D.     Notwithstanding subdivision (c) of CCR Section 80110, the ARB may cancel permissive Burn notices that have been issued more than 24 hours in advance if the cancellation is necessary to maintain suitable air quality.

E.     A permissive Burn or No-Burn advisory outlook will be available up to 72 hour in advance of burns specified in subdivision (c) of CCR Section 80110.

F.     A permissive Burn day notice from the ARB or APCD does not override decisions prohibiting burning by fire agencies with appropriate jurisdiction.

303.3. Exception.
The APCO may issue a special permit to authorize the use of open outdoor fires on No-Burn days as designated by the ARB or APCD when denial of such a permit would threaten imminent and substantial economic loss, and when downwind metropolitan areas are forecasted by the ARB to achieve the ambient air quality standards.