BEND, OR -- Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality is spending more than a million dollars to help communities mitigate smoke impacts. $1.3-million dollars in grants will head to 20 county and tribal governments, including Deschutes County and Warm Springs. Click HERE for the full list.

Oregon DEQ’s Harry Esteve says the money is to address the impacts of smoke from outdoor burning of yard debris or slash. "In some cases, it’s to figure out a different way to handle this material rather than burning it," he tells KBND News. "You can chip it, you can do other things with it. We’re also looking at getting help for what are called air curtain incinerators." Those incinerators burn slash with less smoke than pile burning.

Whether it’s from wildfire, yard debris or pile burning, or prescribed fire, Esteves says it's an air quality issue because smoke releases hazardous particulates, "These tiny essentially particles of soot. And they don’t get filtered out by your lungs and so they can get into your body, into your systems, into your blood and create health problems."

He says the grant money will also be used to help communities create and implement smoke preparedness plans for wildfires.

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