Yard debris burning rules in Washington

The short answer

For a homeowner who just had a big Douglas fir taken down, the practical answer is that the brush gets chipped and the rounds get split or hauled. The land clearing and brush clearing pages explain what crews do with the material; this page covers what you may legally burn, where, and who issues the permit.

State law: RCW 70A.15.5020 and WAC 173-425

The Washington Clean Air Act gives the Department of Ecology and seven regional clean air agencies control of outdoor burning. RCW 70A.15.5020(1)(b) says outdoor burning is not allowed in any urban growth area designated under the Growth Management Act, or in any city over 10,000 people that is threatened with exceeding air quality standards, where reasonable alternatives to burning exist. Subsection (2) lets the agency with permitting jurisdiction decide whether to allow burning of storm or flood debris, with a permit and a fee.

Ecology’s rule, WAC 173-425-040, sets the dates. Residential burning and land-clearing burning have been prohibited inside UGAs and cities over 10,000 since December 31, 2000 (a few small cities under 5,000 had until the end of 2006). Land-clearing burning is also prohibited in any area with more than 1,000 people per square mile, and any type of burning is prohibited wherever the local agency has found a reasonable alternative exists, a finding it must revisit every three years.

WAC 173-425-050 sets the ground rules that apply everywhere burning is still allowed: a person capable of putting the fire out must attend it at all times and extinguish it before leaving; no fire within 50 feet of a structure; no burning of garbage, dead animals, asphalt, petroleum products, paint, rubber, plastics, paper (beyond what is needed to start the fire), cardboard, treated wood, construction or demolition debris, or metal; and the fire must be put out on request when an air-pollution episode, impaired air quality or fire-danger ban is declared. Visible smoke after the allowed period is itself evidence of an unlawful fire. Civil penalties under the Clean Air Act can reach $10,000 per day per violation, adjusted for inflation (RCW 70A.15.3160).

DNR burn permits on forest land

Outside the clean air agencies’ banned areas, if your property is forest land under DNR fire protection, chapter 332-24 WAC applies. WAC 332-24-205 requires a written burning permit for any fire within 50 feet of a structure or within 500 feet of forest slash, and requires that someone able to extinguish the fire attend it until it is completely out.

DNR’s “rule burn” allows a small pile without a written permit if every condition is met. From July 1 to October 15 the pile may be no larger than 4 feet in most counties (10 feet in Clallam and Jefferson). From October 16 to June 30 the limit is 10 feet in most counties, but stays at 4 feet in Island, King, Kitsap, Mason, Pierce, San Juan and Spokane counties. You may burn only natural vegetation, and DNR’s sheet states that yard and garden debris from improved property is prohibited under the rule burn. The pile must sit on bare soil, gravel or another non-flammable surface, at least 50 feet from structures and 500 feet from slash, with a connected hose or at least five gallons of water and a shovel nearby, in calm or light wind, and you must call the DNR burn line (800-323-BURN) on each day of ignition before lighting.

Anything bigger needs a written permit through DNR’s Burn Portal (burnportal.dnr.wa.gov), with a fee based on the tonnage you declare: $105.50 for under 100 tons, $357 for 100 to 500 tons, rising to $10,395 plus $0.50 per ton above 10,000 tons, under a fee schedule in effect since February 1, 2012. DNR states plainly that it does not permit burning of debris from land-clearing operations, so a developer’s slash pile or the stumps from a lot clearing are not a DNR permit question at all.

When the Commissioner of Public Lands declares a burn restriction, it prohibits outdoor fires on all state, county, city and private land under DNR protection. Violating one is a crime; DNR can issue a ticket or prosecute, can sue for negligence if a fire spreads, and can bill you for suppression crews and equipment if your fire escapes. The current status is on the Burn Portal and the DNR fire danger map.

Rules by regional clean air agency

Seven regional agencies administer outdoor burning for most of the state’s population; Ecology handles the counties outside them. Each agency decides where the permanent ban applies, who issues permits elsewhere, and when to call an air-quality burn ban. The statewide UGA and city-over-10,000 ban applies in every region regardless of what the agency page says.

Where there is no regional agency, Ecology is the air authority and the same WAC 173-425 rules apply, so the UGA and city-over-10,000 ban still covers Wenatchee, Moses Lake, Walla Walla and Pullman.

County fire-district permits

In several regions the clean air agency has handed residential permitting to fire districts or county fire marshals. In King, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish counties, Puget Sound Clean Air sends residents outside UGAs to their local fire district for burn permits and local requirements. Northwest Clean Air’s page lists the county fire offices that issue verbal permits for small fires and written permits for anything over 4 feet across. Spokane Regional Clean Air delegates residential burning to Fire Districts 2, 5, 11 and 12 and no one else. Olympic Region routes land-clearing permits through ORCAA or the fire district. Southwest Clean Air’s self-issued county permit is the same idea: the county, not the agency, is the point of contact for a single small pile.

Two things follow. First, the fire district can say no even when the agency map says your address is burnable, because fire-safety bans are declared separately from air-quality bans. Second, the permit never overrides the state rules on materials, attendance and the 50-foot setback, and it never covers land-clearing debris unless it says so in writing.

What you may burn

• Natural vegetation only. Leaves, branches, prunings and brush that grew on the site. Southwest Clean Air and ORCAA both say dry natural vegetation; DNR’s rule burn says natural vegetation and excludes yard debris from improved property.
• Not milled or treated wood. Fence boards, pallets, deck lumber and plywood are construction debris under WAC 173-425-050.
• Not stumps from a clearing job. ORCAA classes stump burning as land clearing, which needs a paid permit outside the banned areas and is impossible inside them. Grinding is the usual route; see stump grinding.
• One pile, sized to the rule. 10 × 10 × 6 feet under a Southwest Clean Air self-issued permit; 4 feet or 10 feet under DNR’s seasonal rule-burn limits; over 4 feet across means a written permit in the Northwest agency’s counties.
• Dry, attended, daylight, light wind. DNR’s test for too much wind is swaying trees, extended flags or whitecaps on open water.

Penalties

Three enforcement tracks overlap. The regional agencies and Ecology issue civil penalties under the Clean Air Act, up to $10,000 per day per violation under RCW 70A.15.3160; Southwest Clean Air says fines apply per violation or occurrence, including for a smoke nuisance. DNR treats burning during a Commissioner’s restriction as a crime and bills suppression costs to whoever let a fire escape. And the fire district can cite you under the county fire code for an unpermitted fire. A neighbor’s smoke complaint is usually what starts all three, since WAC 173-425-050 makes visible smoke after the allowed period evidence of an unlawful fire.

Alternatives: yard-waste collection and chipping

Inside the banned areas the realistic options are curbside organics, a transfer station, or chipping on site. The four largest cities all collect yard waste at the curb:

• Seattle: Seattle Public Utilities collects food and yard waste at the curb as part of residential service, with rates on its food-and-yard rates page and a seasonal extra-yard-waste program in fall.
• Tacoma: food and yard waste is collected every other week, alternating with garbage and recycling; up to two 90-gallon brown bins are free with the garbage bill, a third costs $3 per month, and bins carry a 250-pound limit (Solid Waste Management, 253-502-2100).
• Spokane: weekly collection from March through November and once a month in December, January and February, for grass, leaves, weeds, sod and branches under 3 inches in diameter; one-year commitment per cart, $16.50 per extra winter dump.
• Vancouver: the city manages garbage, recycling and organics collection through its contracted hauler, Waste Connections (360-892-5370), with seasonal fall and spring disposal coupons.

A tree crew’s chipper handles what the cart cannot. Chipping limbs on site and leaving the chips as mulch, or hauling them, is standard on a removal and avoids the burn question entirely; the tree removal hub describes how debris is priced. If you are clearing brush for wildfire defense in an eastern Washington UGA, the defensible space guide covers what to cut, and the answer for disposal is still chip, haul or compost rather than burn.

Storm debris

After a windstorm the rules do not change by themselves. RCW 70A.15.5020(2) lets the permitting authority decide whether to allow burning of storm or flood debris, with a permit and fee, and Spokane Regional Clean Air lists storm and flood debris among the fires it permits. Inside a UGA the answer is still no. A tree that came down on the house is an insurance and removal question first; see storm-damaged trees and homeowners insurance in Washington, and for the permit side of removing what is left standing, tree removal permits in Washington.