New Mexico Administrative Code › Title 20 - ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION › Chapter 11 - ALBUQUERQUE - BERNALILLO COUNTY AIR QUALITY CONTROL BOARD › Part 21 - OPEN BURNING › Section 20.11.21.7 - DEFINITIONS

Current through Register Vol. 35, No. 13, July 16, 2024
In addition to the definitions in Section 20.11.21.7 NMAC,
				  the definitions in 20.11.1 NMAC apply unless there is a conflict between
				  definitions, in which case the definition in 20.11.21 NMAC shall govern.
A. "Agricultural burning" means the burning
				of crop residues for field preparation or that is otherwise used for the
				production of a crop.
B.
				"Alternative to burning" means a treatment employing manual, mechanical,
				chemical, or biological methods to manage vegetation or fuel loads, or land
				management practices that treat vegetation (fuel) without using fire. A
				treatment or practice may only be considered an alternative if it has
				successfully been used to take the place of fire for at least three consecutive
				years. Suggested alternatives to burning are listed in Section 20.11.21.18
				NMAC.
C. "Biomass utilization"
				means any method of removing and taking biomass material to a landfill, burn
				facility, a power generation facility, an ethanol production facility, a
				redistribution facility, a fiberboard or particleboard facility, using the
				material as compost or mulch, using it as animal bedding, for erosion control,
				etc.
D. "Broadcast burn" means the
				controlled application of fire to wildland fuels in their natural or modified
				state over a predetermined area. Broadcast burns do not include the burning of
				wildland fuels that have been concentrated in piles by manual or mechanical
				methods.
E. "Burn down" means that
				period of time, not to exceed three (3) hours, after a no-burn period is
				announced by the director, within which period a person operating a solid fuel
				heating device must cease combustion within any solid fuel heating device by
				withholding fuel or modifying the air-to-fuel ratio.
F. "Burner" means the person who is
				responsible for or in control of a prescribed fire project that is regulated
				under 20.11.21 NMAC.
G. "Burn
				project" means, in prescribed fires or in wildland fire use, a burn regulated
				by 20.11.21.15 NMAC on an area that is contiguous and is being treated or
				managed for the same land management objectives.
H. "Class I area" means all international
				parks, national wilderness areas which exceed 5,000 acres, national memorial
				parks which exceed 5,000 acres, and national park areas which exceed 6,000
				acres in size and which were in existence on the date of enactment of the Clean
				Air Act Amendments of 1977. The extent of the areas designated as class I shall
				conform to any changes in the boundaries of such areas, which occurred
				subsequent to the date of the enactment of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1977
				or 1990.
I. "Department" means the
				Albuquerque environmental health department, which is the administrative agency
				of the Albuquerque - Bernalillo county air quality control board.
J. "Director" means the administrative head
				of the Albuquerque environmental health department or a designated
				representative(s).
K. "Division"
				means the city of Albuquerque air quality division or its successor
				agency.
L. "Emission reduction
				technique" or "ERT" means a control strategy used to reduce smoke from a
				prescribed fire that results in less smoke than would have been produced if the
				emission reduction technique were absent. A control strategy used for a period
				of fewer than three years is an emission reduction technique; if the control
				strategy replaces fire for three consecutive years or more, the control
				strategy is an alternative to burning.
M. "Environmentally non-essential burning"
				means the open burning of any unwanted combustible material which could
				otherwise reasonably be altered, destroyed, reduced or removed to a suitable
				disposal site without the potential to cause environmental harm or
				damage.
N. "Environmentally poor
				burning substances" include but are not limited to: refuse, paper, rubbish,
				books, magazines, fiberboard, packaging, rags, fabrics, animal waste, waste
				oil, liquid or gelatinous hydrocarbons, tar, paints and solvents, chemically
				treated wood, plastic or rubber, office records, sensitive or classified
				wastes, hazardous or toxic substances, interiors of wrecked vehicle bodies or
				other materials which are difficult to burn without producing significant
				amounts of noxious or toxic fumes or dense smoke.
O. "Health alert" means an air pollution
				alert, warning or emergency issued by the department.
P. "Hot torch" means a wand or burner fueled
				by propane, butane or compressed natural gas.
Q. "Hot torch burning" means burning of
				individual weeds at the point of the hot torch.
R. "No-burn period" means a period of time,
				declared by the director, during which no person with authority or power to
				control the operation of a solid fuel heating device shall allow the operation
				of a solid fuel heating device to continue, following a burn down period,
				within the wood smoke impacted area, unless the device is a wood heater that
				has been emission certified by the EPA. Exemptions may be granted by the
				director per 20.11.22.2 NMAC. No-burn periods may be declared any time from
				October 1 through February 28. The director shall declare a no-burn period
				after reviewing available meteorological data, air pollution monitoring data
				and other relevant information and determining that expected atmospheric
				conditions will not adequately disperse wood smoke.
S. "Open burning" means the combustion of any
				substance which is not confined in a device having controllable fuel/air
				mixture capable of achieving nearly complete combustion, and from which
				combustion products are discharged into the open air without passing through a
				stack, duct, chimney, or vent.
T.
				"PB-I" or "level I prescribed burn" means a smoke management burn project that
				emits less than one ton of PM10 emissions per day or
				burns less than 5,000 cubic feet pile volume of vegetative material per
				day.
U. "PB-II" or "level II
				prescribed burn" means a smoke management burn project that emits one ton or
				more of PM10 emissions per day or burns 5,000 cubic feet
				or more pile volume of vegetative material per day.
V. "Pile" means vegetative materials that
				have been relocated and heaped together either by hand or machinery.
W. "Pile volume" means the gross volume of a
				pile, including the air space between solid constituents, as calculated from
				the overall dimensions and shape of the pile.
X. "PM10 emissions" or
				"PM10" means finely divided solid or liquid material,
				with an aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to a nominal 10 micrometers
				emitted to the ambient air, as measured by the reference method in 40 CFR Part
				50, Appendix J, or equivalent method approved by the EPA.
Y. "Population" means the total number of
				individuals occupying an area. Locations for individuals within an area
				include, but are not limited to, open campgrounds, single-family dwellings,
				hospitals, schools in use, villages, and open places of employment.
Z. "Prescribed fire" or "prescribed burn" or
				"PB" means any fire ignited by any person to meet specific non-agricultural
				land management objectives. For the purposes of 20.11.21 NMAC, wildland fire
				use is considered a prescribed fire.
AA. "Public notification" means any method
				that communicates burn information to the burners, air regulators, Bernalillo
				county fire department, the local fire authority, and to the general
				public.
BB. "Research and
				development activities" means scientific experimentation using open burning to
				prove a concept or produce information useful in planning.
CC. "Vegetative material" means untreated
				wood and untreated wood products, including tree stumps (whole or chipped),
				trees, tree limbs (whole or chipped), bark, sawdust, chips, scraps, slabs,
				millings, shavings, grass, grass clippings, weeds, leaves, conifer needles,
				bushes, shrubs, clippings from bushes and shrubs, and agricultural plant
				residue.
DD. "Ventilation index"
				means a technical rating used to establish the potential for smoke or other
				pollutants to ventilate away from its source.
EE. "Ventilation index category" means a
				category in the ventilation index that is determined as provided in Section
				20.11.21.17 NMAC and is rated as excellent, very good, good, fair or
				poor.
FF. "Wildfire" means an
				unplanned or unwanted fire that burns vegetative material in a natural or
				modified state.
GG. "Wildland"
				means an area in which there is minimal development, except for roads,
				railroads, power lines and similar utilities and transportation facilities.
				Structures, if any, are widely scattered.
HH. "Wildland fire use" means the management
				of wildfire within a wildland that is ignited by natural forces, such as by
				lightning or volcanic eruption, following a decision to allow the wildfire to
				burn to accomplish specific pre-stated resource objectives in predefined
				geographic areas, also known as fire use, wildfire use, prescribed natural
				fire, and fire for resource benefit.
II. "Winter pollution advisory season" or
				"no-burn season" means the period from October 1st through February 28th each
				year when no-burn calls are made. The no-burn call is a control strategy
				designed to protect the air quality in Bernalillo county. This strategy helps
				mitigate particulate matter and carbon monoxide build up during the colder
				months of the year when temperature inversions trap pollutants closer to ground
				level.
JJ. "Wood smoke impacted
				area" means that portion of Bernalillo county that is the most adversely
				affected by the burning of wood during atmospheric conditions that the director
				concludes may not adequately disperse wood smoke. The wood smoke impacted area
				is bounded on the north and south by the Bernalillo county line, on the west by
				the universal transverse meridian (UTM) line 337000mE and on the east by the
				UTM line 367000mE, Zone 13.