Travis County Commissioners Court
March 21, 2006
Item 3
Since we you there, about baldwin, number 3 is to consider and take appropriate action regarding the prohibition of outdoor burning in the unincorporated areas of Travis County and related matters.
>> good morning, pete baldwin, emergency management coordinator. We visited as you know we had some fairly significant rains over this weekend. Averaging anywhere from an inch to upwards of nearly three inches in Travis County. Numerous places in Travis County received over two inches. However, what we got was real fast rains, too. And very fast and had a lot of runoff. We had a little bit of flooding, but not much. But we are in the middle of what we call our green up period. As anyone has noticed driving down the road, you start seeing the green, you don't see the dead grasses anymore. I met with all of our chiefs yesterday. We had -- the monthly meeting of the capital area fire chief's association, I posed the question to them. Is -- do they want to lift the burn ban. Being fire chiefs, they all said no, we want to keep it on forever. But we said that's not a possibility, you know. Now, the discussion turned actually to is this an opportunity to be able to -- a window of opportunity waived upon our -- based upon our long-range forecast to go ahead and lift the burn ban for a week, two weeks, depending on weather conditions, allow people to burdensome of this trash that they have been putting up. We realize that there is going to be a considerable amount of activity coming this weekend if we lift this. That is why the chiefs have all said that they are in favor of lifting the burn ban for one week. Review it next week on court. But they will also keep their what we call our strike teams in place just like we do during high fire danger. Knowing that we have been under a burn ban now for all of -- of 2006. So we know that there's going to be significant activity, but we feel like if there was an opportunity now would be it and then we would like for this agenda item to be on next week to review it.
>> but the other order is still in place, so we need to sign an order lifting?
>> yes, sir.
>> the current --
>> I have copies of that. I can either provide them to you now or I can put them in your signature package in your office.
>> let's be efficient and provide them now, mr. Baldwin [laughter]
>> pete? I will ask you -- when you get back to the mic.
>> thank you.
>> these are prepared with the assistance of legal counsel?
>> yes, sir. Yes, sir, judge.
>> yes. I -- I understand that there had been -- especially in the north Texas area where you know they are really trying to show that they are in -- I understand that there was a lack of having the ability to talk with one another as far as the can I have emergency outreach to overcome the fires that devastated that part of the -- of the state. My question to you is -- has anything been posed, the problem in this particular region, as far as having -- having challenges whereby you are not able to talk with one another when you work together as a team to address fires in this particular region? Has that been a problem for us?
>> the panhandle fires presented a significant communication problem because you had as many as 14 to 17 different departments, including state departments, federal departments, private contractors and then fire departments from all over the state of Texas and out of the state of Texas, fighting those fires. So the communication was a problem on that. They have worked around it and been able to get back to a common frequency. Locally, we have addressed that with our 800 trunk system where most of our fire departments now have -- have moved or are moving to that. We also have additional grant funds that we are purchasing some radios to make sure that we will have enough for those incoming agencies that we will have that interoperatability, then the fire departments of all of Travis County are going together on one grant, which is a multi--year grant to also see about getting money for those radios or subscriber equipments to fill out their entire agency. So we have been not only locally, but through the capital area planning council, we have been looking regionally at how to solve this interoperatability problem that occurs quite often. We have made significant strides in doing so, yes, sir.
>> thank you.
>> pete?
>> yes.
>> I’m not sure that I know this, I’m sure that there are a lot of people that wonder. When -- when we are considering lifting the ban it -- it is for the purpose of what some people having to burn things, are there people in our community that that is how they get rid of their garbage? Is that -- how many folks have -- should we be talking about? I’ve had a couple of calls this morning in the office that said please don't remove the burn ban. I’m sure that people are so frightened with regards to having watched all of the news and in the panhandle area, but hopefully I mean even though it was quick rain, it was enough rain to get the ground wet so it probably would not have something like that. But tell me so that people would know. Why is it that you really want people to be able to burn things. Isn't most of that garbage?
>> there are instances, the specific rules say that trash burning is allowed if the governmental agency does not provide a -- a trash service. So, yes, we do have folks that depend upon burning trash in some of the rural areas of Travis County. It is not against the law to burn but outside a municipality. As long as you stay within the state guidelines, there is not an outdoor burning ban in place. The argument could be made if a contractor were clearing the lot, he should go rent a chipper. The other side of that argument is the law says that I can burn it. If there's not an outdoor burning ban, I stay within the parameters of the state. So we've had a number of calls of people who live out in the unincorporated areas who cleaned up the tree limbs around their house, whatever, they have got a pile in the back yard, they want to get rid of, we have others who when we get into these long-term things, they tend to start seeing a lot more trash bags along the side of the road. They don't have a means of getting rid of it. Either they don't want to pay for it or they can't pay for it. And then we have others who are on the private side that say I’ve got the ability and the right to burn under normal conditions. And I would like to do so. So while we are not out of that complete drought and -- and we will mention this. Our drought index, which we always key off of, if we say anything above 500 allows us to put an outdoor burning ban in place, it is still above 500, it has dropped down into the mid 5 hundreds, but -- but that is a -- that is a measurement that we use based upon reports also -- reports from our fire departments. Their feelings and things -- we try to take in the whole picture of when we make those calls. So answer your question. Yes. There are people who -- who need to -- or want to and need to burn in order to get rid of household trash. Others are we gathered this stuff up, we warrant to get rid of it. As long as it falls under the state of Texas burning laws it is legal.
>> are there any statistics that tell how many folks in Travis County do have to burn their dwarj versus having it -- their garbage versus having it picked up? You don't think in 2006 there's not an area where you can't get your garbage picked up unless of course you don't want to pay for it. Is there a percentage of -- is it 1%? I mean, 850 to 900,000 people in Travis County. Do you have any --
>> I don't have a percentage on that.
>> we do get calls in our office from constituents who on an ongoing, consistent basis will say there are certain places in precinct four where trash is thrown out by the road. And they are in trash bags. Sometimes they are not. But we get those calls and refer them all to t.n.r. So that they will send staff out to pick it up. Before it's scattered all over the road, you know, so we do get, my office gets consistent calls about that trash being on the roadside.
>> it's not only -- [indiscernible] Commissioner, but not only the trash and things like that. You have folks out there that need to also clean up brush and stuff like that. They pile this brush and there are just situations whereby you -- during the times of the year that you only allow to burn if the conditions are right, because if those brush fires even though -- on your property you burn brush that you are cleaning up, that you are cleaning up off your property, you want to burn that, if that stuff gets out of hand, of course you have a catastrophe. So again those folks have been waiting in line to ensure that the cleanup and cleaning up of brush and piles of brush that's sitting on their property waiting to be burned they have to be -- to be held in check until the conditions are appropriate for them to do those things. So it's kind of a big, big deem all across the board on all of this stuff.
>> move that we approve, put this item back on the court's agenda next week just in case we teed to take additional -- need to take additional action.
>> second.
>> I further urge as part of this motion, the residents who take advantage of the lifting of this ban to use extreme caution and to obey all laws when burning outdoors.
>> yes, sir.
>> any discussion of the motion? Seconded by Commissioner Davis. All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. We will have it back on next week in case we need it.
>> thank you, pete.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, March 22, 2006 7:57 AM