City ready to ban leaf burning

The Hudson City Council last week moved closer to banning the open burning of leaves within the city.

Responding to protests that leaf burning is harmful to people's health and the environment, the council approved the first reading of an amendment to an ordinance that would outlaw all open burning, except when it's done by the fire department for training.

The city now gives residents one weekend in the fall and another in the spring to burn leaves. The burning is done in neighborhoods south of Interstate 94 one weekend and north of I-94 the next.

Other types of open fires are already banned.

While council members appeared to be unanimous in their support for the amendment that would stop leaf burning, they disagreed about whether the city is obligated to provide residents with an alternative method of disposing of tree leaves.

Mayor Jack Breault suggested at the beginning of the discussion that the council should decide what the city will do when leaf burning is illegal.

But 2nd District Alderman Dean Knudson said the proposed burning ban and what, if anything, the city does to help residents dispose of their leaves are separate issues.

Knudson said he favors the ban and that city residents already have other options of getting rid of their leaves. They can make their own backyard compost piles or have the city's garbage hauler take away the leaves at a price of $1.50 per bag, he said.

He said some city-dwellers could take their leaves to the homes of relatives or friends who live in the country.

"I think the city owes the citizens an alternative," replied 3rd District Alderman William Knuth. He said there are people who can't afford to pay to have the garbage truck pick up their leaves, and that it would be difficult for the elderly to build and tend their own compost sites.

Fourth District Alderwoman Cathy Morris noted that River Falls, New Richmond and Menomonie have municipal compost sites. She suggested that Hudson look into establishing one, too.

Knudson said the city shouldn't compete with Bob Keatley, who has a private composting operation at his Arrow Dale Farm near Roberts. The city's previous garbage hauler, Waste Management, had a contract to dispose of yard waste at Keatley's site.

Mayor Breault and 5th District Alderman Ronald Troyer also were opposed to establishing a compost site.

"We're out of the garbage business. I want to be out of the leaf business, too," Breault said.

"I support the ban on burning, but I don't support the government getting involved in a compost site," Troyer said. "It's too much big government for me."

At a Dec. 13 meeting of the Public Works Committee, which Morris chairs, Wastewater Treatment Superintendent Jim Schreiber reported that River Falls' composting program costs about $13,000 a year. Each residential unit in the city is billed 65 cents per quarter to pay for the operation.

The two- to three-acre site is open for city residents to pick up compost in the spring and fall, Schreiber said.

The Dec. 13 committee meeting also was attended by a group of city residents opposed to leaf burning, including Joe Feidt, Nancy Bieraugel, Elizabeth Kennedy and Tracy Dorau.

Feidt read aloud a letter to the city written by Hudson physician Patrick McCann and also signed by four other doctors.

"I feel it's a public health issue, not to mention an environmental concern, and should be something as a community we seek to avoid," McCann wrote of leaf burning.

Dr. McCann said he was concerned about the smoke's harmful effect on patients at Hudson Medical Center. It is a special concern for people with asthma or chronic obstructive lung disease, he said, but even people without respiratory illnesses complain about headaches and breathing problems on the weekends burning is allowed.

Petitions against burning, along with literature about its harmful effects, also have been delivered to city hall.

Most of the literature refers to the airborne particulate matter, carbon monoxide and carcinogens produced by the burning of leaves.

One of those cited was former St. Croix County Horticulturist Tom Kalb, who wrote: "Burning leaves is hazardous to your health. It releases cancer-causing compounds into the air. Microscopic particles of leaf smoke can penetrate into the deepest regions of the lung and remain there for years; this increases the chance of respiratory infection and triggers asthma attacks."