Travis County Commissioners Court
March 17, 2009,
Item 3
>> 3 is to consider and take appropriate action regarding the prohibition of outdoor burning in the unincorporated areas of Travis County.
>> well, the good news is we got -- we received a blessing last week.
that rain was -- when you kept asking, judge, what I would ask for, that's what I would ask for.
and so we received three to four days of good steady rain.
it was coverage across the county.
actually, this time last week when we were before you our drought index was at 654.
this morning it stands at 501.
we usually use the 500 mark as a berchg mark to when we start looking at putting a burn ban in.
however, with the rains that came, we also net metropolitan with all of our fire -- we also met with all of our fire chiefs yesterday and took a vote among the fire chiefs and they have all agreed that they would like to see the ban liftd for at least a week and reevaluate next Tuesday.
we've had some counties around us that have lifted theirs, and our chiefs have decided that they would like to go ahead and lift it for a week and reevaluate on Tuesday.
so the recommendation from emergency services and the fire chiefs is that we sign an order lifting the outdoor burning ban, but yet have the same language on for next Tuesday in the event that we need to go right back under one.
>> has the state fire marshal's office done anything?
>> I'm not aware of anything.
>> I don't know of any changes they've made or recommendations.
>> okay.
>> we lift the burn ban and reevaluate next week.
>> second.
>> any more discussion?
all in favor that passes by unanimous vote.
we'll have it back on just in case.
>> thank you, sir.
>> by the way, I have received at least one phone -- well, phone calls and an e-mail from one resident, so I plan to let him know he has a one-week window probably.
but I guess we'll look at the situation on Monday and on Tuesday make the recommendation.
would get more rain, but if we don't get rain, but get more sun, is it likely that we'll ask for bant to be imposed -- for the ban to be imposed?
do we know?
>> what we'll do is we'll poll the chiefs again Monday morning and see what kind of fires they're run org what kind of problems they've had.
however, the good news about the type of rain that we had is this will give us probably a 10 to 14-day window, because we get into now what we call that green-up.
we get the new vegetation growing.
and I can tell you from the rain that we received, there was very little -- I think the city of Austin closed one low water crossing, that was over around bull creek.
out of all that rain, the ground soaked it in.
there was no runoff.
so that is -- what we received is a large benefit.
now, the other benefit of that is not only the new green stuff, but what we call the larger dead fuels, our fuels that are on the ground.
they had time to absorb the moisture.
because during a fire when those are very dry, those contribute to the intensity of the fire and make it harder to put out and control.
with them now having a lot more moisture content, they don't contribute that much.
so our fire danger has dropped, but we still would like to be able to revisit it on Tuesday based upon this week's activities.
>> thank you.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 1:35 PM