PRINEVILLE, OR -- Prineville residents are being asked to help maintain clean air this winter. Planning Director Phil Stenbeck tells KBND the city has been instructed by the EPA and DEQ to reduce particulates in the air.
Monitors record about 12 days of unhealthy air in Prineville, between November and February, often caused by smoke from wood stove and yard debris burning. "We’ve looked at adding a free yard debris day during the winter-months. We also had an ordinance which allowed burning from 7 a.m. - 12 p.m. from Wednesday through Saturday. So, what we’ve done also is we’ve expanded the days. 'Dilution is the solution to pollution,' as they say. So, instead of that burning going on over four days, it’ll go on over seven." Stenbeck adds, "And then what we did was, we increased the hours during the day and shifted them a little later because what happens is, earlier in the morning it still gets trapped in the inversion. But, about 9 o’clock or so, around 10 o’clock then when you burn it lifts up in the atmosphere and it dilutes and it goes out and doesn’t have the same negative effect."