NWCG Smoke Managers Subcommittee Conference Call November 27, 2018

Roll Call: Mike Broughton, /US Forest Service (Chair) Ursula Parker, /Butte County AQMD (Secretary, Acting Co-Chair) Rick Gillam, Georgia/U.S. EPA, Southeast Region Carol Blocksome, Kansas/Kansas State University Pleasant McNeel, Mississippi/USFS Lisa Bye, /BLM Lou Ballard, Idaho/USFWS Fire Center Andrea Holland, Colorado/Retired USFS Paul Corrigan, Utah/Utah Smoke Management Janice Peterson, Washington/USFS Nick Yonker, /Dept of Forestry Debra Harris, California/North Coast AQMD Eric Olson, California/Siskiyou County APCD Kim Sumner, California/Siskiyou County APCD Ann Hobbs, California/Placer County APCD Andrea Boyer, Idaho/Nez Perce Tribe Julie Simpson, Idaho/Nez Perce Tribe Gary Curcio, North Carolina/IPA

The purpose of the Smoke Manager’s Sub-Committee is to increase communications amongst the community of air quality professionals, other state and federal governmental agencies, land managers, and other persons conducting burning activities --and ---those ---who ---are ------interested -in ----smoke ------management from burning operations.

Agenda Intros Schedule for NWCG Conference calls for 2019 EPA Update – Rick Gillam Regional Summary of 2018 Fire Season Smoke Issues, including in Butte County, CA Highlights of Past Conferences and Schedule of Upcoming Conferences Prescribed Fire Creative Solutions Increasing Participation

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Schedule for NWCG Conference calls for 2019 – Please put these dates (all Tues 10am mountain time) on your calendar • February 26, 2019 • May 21, 2019 • August 27, 2019 • November 12, 2019 EPA Update – Rick Gillam

EPA Smoke-Ready Toolbox for

• Enhanced EPA webpage with new tools and information resources related to fires: https://www.epa.gov/smoke-ready-toolbox-wildfires • Links to information on current fires and tools for evaluating potential exposure to smoke o New fact sheets about how smoke can affect health and actions that can be taken to reduce smoke exposure o Additional information on AirNow webpage: https://airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=topics.smoke_wildfires o Updated versions of Smoke Sense App: https://www.epa.gov/air-research/smoke-sense- study-citizen-science-project-using-mobile-app o See attached resource sheet pdf file

EPA Fire-related Research Projects • EPA Region 4 is working with the EPA Office of Research and Development on a Regional Applied Research Effort (RARE) Grant project titled: Southeast Prescribed Fire Experiment (SERX): Emissions Characterization of Fuels Common in the Southeast o The goal of the project is to obtain improved emission factors as a function of fire characteristics for Southeast wildland fires to provide better prediction of regional PM2.5 and O3. The improved emissions factors will be used to improve air quality model performance. o The project will include field and laboratory studies. Multiple prescribed burn sites will be selected in the southeast with ground and aerial sampling (drone or tethered blimp). Also fuel samples will be collected at the sites and taken to EPA’s burn chamber in RTP, NC for a more in-depth emissions characterization. o We are exploring coordinating with NASA/NOAA FIREX-AQ Research Effort which is scheduled to aircraft sampling of prescribed fire plumes in the southeast in late summer 2019. • EPA ORD has a new project to deploy a Mobile Ambient Smoke Investigation Capability (MASIC) sampling trailer to provide short-term advanced air monitoring or wildland fire smoke. o Will be deployed for short-term monitoring at large events in the southeast. o Also will be located near Augusta, Georgia at an existing PM2.5 and ozone FRM monitoring site for longer-term sampling to characterize prescribed fire emissions. o Advanced monitoring will include speciated PM2.5, elemental and organic carbon, particle sizing, ozone, NOx, CO, CO2, SO2 H2S, NH3 and potentially more.

Exceptional Events Draft Prescribed Fire Guidance • EPA has developed a Draft Guidance Document titled: Prescribed Fire on Wildland: Addendum to the Guidance on the Preparation of Exceptional Events Demonstrations for Wildfire Events that May Influence Ozone Concentrations. • As part of the interagency review process, the document has been shared with State Air Quality agencies for review and comment. Comments are due by January 11, 2019. • EPA’s plans to finalize the guidance in 2019. • In response to the request for wildfire exceptional events contact in western EPA Regions, here are the contact names Rick has are the following: o Region 9/San Francisco, CA Lauren Maghran 415-947-4107 [email protected] o Region 10/Boise, ID Mike McGown 208-378-5764 [email protected] o Ursula Parker commented that Katie Stewart is listed as EPA’s Wildfire Smoke contact for Region 9, and Ann Hobbs said that she had worked with Katie. Her email address is [email protected]. o Eric Olson offered contact info at the California Air Resources Board, Theresa Najita (according to CARB’s staff directory, her phone # is 916-322-7297)

Regional Summary of 2018 Fire Season Smoke Issues, including Camp Fire in Butte County, CA

East: No Report

South: Gary Curcio stated that several factors that can influence smoke issues:

o PM/plume concentrations can be used to project visibility; o Mixing Height status – mixing height sets your limit as a burner– in NC, different offices use different models and that will affect efforts to burn, even on opposite sides of a county line; o Organic Soils – Gary called them the “Rodney Dangerfield of tools”, (it gets no respect) but is the most potent fuel when it gets ignited in terms of downwind concentrations (and Mike pointed out it affects total emissions released because it doesn’t take into account the depth of the ground fuels). o Moisture in fuels – “Consume 4.3,” the new calculation for emissions, is used in Playground Ver 3 and he assumes it’s in AirFire’s output (being used in the emissions output), takes into account moisture in the fuels. Also on fire practitioners’ side, there are efforts to enhance the program if the web service agrees, to try to have uniformity and consistency and would help air quality if they understand the products. Mike would like to have further conversations about this and we’ll work this into future meetings. Ann pointed out that GOES 17 satellite went live last week. Ann attended a webinar out of Reno NWS (put on by Brian Brong) a few weeks ago - the link to a recorded version of the webinar is here: https://recordings.join.me/DY88qbw67UyzncW3NIExdQ

o Mike said that there will be a GOES 18 and 19 for the middle part of the country that may come available soon. o Gary added at the end of the call that another factor is that the fire practitioners need to determine their dispersion window. Central: Carol Blocksome – Kansas had a light burn season, late season rain, so sitting on large fuel loads right now. Rains came in the western part of the state, concerns because that’s the fire-prone part of the state, really concerned if it’s dry over winter. There is also a shift in foothills to Aug/Sept (later season than usual) burns to try to remove undesirable woody species and elimination of some invasive weeds. On the wildfires, their fires are short so smoke is intense but doesn’t last long.

Northern Rockies: Lou said there’s been some burning on the Boise National (Forest). Lou was in Oregon when things were worse in Boise, didn’t have the local fires, but smoke drifted in from regional fires.

Central Rockies: Mike Broughton shared that they had a number of large fires during their fire season. The 416 Fire north of Durango, (which was likely started by the Durango-Silverton Railroad), put a crimp on the early summer tourist season, and south of Colorado Springs, the Silver , didn’t cause a major smoke problem in most of Colorado because of its location along the lower SE foothills of CO Rockies, but was a huge fire in terms of acres. They did get some ARAs out of it. Prescribed fire season has been busy with a lot of acres burned: near Durango they got just over 5,000 acres in a two-week period – it was the third entry into the area (fuel loads a bit lighter than the last couple of times, but there were still some heavy fuels in some areas). Lesson Learned: next time they’re going to do a week off in between burning/major ignitions to give local residents time to recover. Two weeks straight of smoke was tough for ranchers and communities in the area. The Fire Management Officer has requested that the state air pollution control puts a restriction on their permit to guarantee that the next officer heeds that restriction. Mike added that there were some pile burns in the western portion of South Dakota that caused an exceedance. Private burners were also burning, and those piles were not being tracked. Rick Boddicker is expected to be working with Mike on that.

Southwest: Lisa Bye said that last winter there was no snow, so they had a higher than average number of acres burned, mostly on state/private land. This year has been wetter than normal and people have been getting permits (gearing up?). Mike asked if they have replaced the NM Smoke Management Interagency position (Claudia Standish, BLM, retired a couple of years ago), and Lisa shared that they now have a meteorologist out of the SWCC, Rich Naden.

Northwest (Washington): Janice Peterson shared that Washington had another fairly large wildfire season; 400,000 acres was burned (not as much as was burned in 2015, when over 1M was burned). This fall, a lot of prescribed burning is being accomplished, aided by the support of an elected official, Hilary Franz, who has been proactive with the Dept of Natural Resources’ (DNR) use of prescribed burning. There have been short term smoke intrusions but the DNR hasn’t been voicing a lot of concern. Smoke even hit the Puget Sound twice, and a lot more attention is paid when it hits Seattle. British Columbia has been sending smoke south the last couple of years. Washington’s smoke management plan update is forthcoming, estimated in the Spring of 2020.

Northwest (Oregon) Nick Yonkers shared that they had a lot of wildfires again this year; Oregon had somewhere around 750,000 acres burned. The Klondike Fire (burned in an area that has burned many times historically, including the Biscuit fire in 2002) burned for a long time. Oregon got smoke from WA, BC, CA, etc., as well as local/regional. Length/period experiencing smoke was longer this year; it was from July – Sept last year, this year they went into the fall with very little moisture. The Klondike blew up again in October and there was some concern it would blow up again in November. The smoke started in June, especially in mid-July in the Medford/Grants Pass area, but there was not as much smoke in Willamette Valley probably because there wasn’t as much smoke in the Cascades. There’s been a lot of fire in Oregon the last ten years except in 2016. They’re just now getting their prescribed burning going; they had issues with stagnant air and cold nights/woodstove smoke, but the wet pattern now is assisting with mixing.

There was some discussion (Mike B. and Gary C) about smoke going through the coast range which created two SuperFog events in Oregon earlier this season (SuperFog is a near zero- visibility condition which is caused by warm temps and high humidity which mixes with smoke particles). One SuperFog event occurred on the West Coyote burn 10/12-10/13, on Highway 126 near Eugene, which caused an automobile accident. The second event was on the HeHe fuels reduction burn with two separate accidents. There was also a fatality accident in (Kaibab National Forest). Smoke dispersion model runs did not indicate a SuperFog event, but definitely a reduced visibility event with high moisture content and smoke mixture (heavy smoke-induced fog). The PB-Piedmont model picked up the low spot where an accident had previously occurred. The info is there and the knowledge has to be used – it was emphasized that there needs to be awareness of what the critical thresholds are that present concerns for this kind of event. They are predictable and can be mitigated – close the highway before an accident occurs.

West-California Ursula Parker gave a report about the Camp Fire in Butte County, California. The Camp Fire started just before 6:30am on November 8th, on one of several NE aligned ridges in the foothills of Butte County. There were strong northeasterly winds which carried the fire, quickly grew in size and jumped the Feather River Canyon, which separates the communities of Concow and Paradise, by sending embers across the canyon, igniting the Town of Paradise in multiple locations at one time. The wildfire then became an “urban conflagration” and overtook the town and its residents. Paradise has long been concerned about its vulnerability to fire. Measures had been taken to prepare residents to evacuate, and in fact, an actual evacuation drill was executed just a few months ago. An evacuation zone map was created to allow for an orderly release of people who were in danger in a typical fire. But this was not a typical fire. Within a matter of hours, (nearly) the entire town was destroyed by the fire. The stories that have been shared by those who escaped the town are terrifying. People have described loading their cars quickly with belongings to escape the fire, only to have to abandon their cars along the roadway and run for their lives. Some died in their cars trying to escape. The 1900 report the following day reported 90,000 acres had burned, 6,452 single family residents and 260 commercial businesses had been destroyed. In the days that followed, the fire slowed in its growth and the death counts and structure loss amounts grew.

Butte issued an (air quality) advisory the first day, updated it a few days later, and then entered into a join advisory with the County Public Health Department on November 12th . The cross- over from what is the air quality district message and what is the public health message, what our roles are, was important. The air district needed to make sure that the messaging was consistent. Air district staff knew that people were being exposed to hazardous levels of air pollution and in many cases, it was difficult to protect them. Many people found themselves suddenly homeless, having abandoned their cars and their homes, which were destroyed, and were (and still are) living in tents in the Walmart parking lot, breathing hazardous levels of smoke with little protection. Others who were more fortunate were calling the office asking how to protect themselves in an apartment with single pane windows and poor caulking/sealant around windows and doors, with smoke inside their home. These people cannot afford to go buy HEPA air cleaners, don’t have a car to travel somewhere else. It was hard to know what to say. The air quality was bad everywhere, too, not just in Butte County; staff knew that the smoke was affecting communities like San Francisco and Sacramento, at very unhealthy levels as well.

The air district requested an Air Resource Advisor the first day of the fire. Two days later, on November 10th, Ursula started attending the Coooperators’ meetings at the fire camp and asked the CAL Fire Incident Team if they would request an ARA. She also contacted Pete Lahm and Trent Proctor (USFS) for help. Ursula learned that part of the problem was that whomever requests the ARA is responsible for paying for the ARA. On November 11th, the incident came under Unified Command with the USFS, which likely helped because the ARA is a USFS asset, and (finally!) on November 14th, the ARA arrived (Lee Tarnay, USFS, and his trainee, K.C., BLM). The tools that they were able to utilize to provide regional information about smoke and forecasts was well beyond what we were capable of locally. Lee and K.C. did a FANTASTIC job and everyone was super happy to have them on the team. The ARAs not only provide info to other air districts affected by the smoke, but also to the crews on the ground, so hopefully CAL Fire saw that their being there was of benefit to them, as well.

Ursula was told that typically once an incident command team works with an ARA, they appreciate the value and are less resistant to having them on the fire. Some discussion ensued (Gary Curcio) about the value of an ARA; Gary added that without the presence of an ARA, there is no documentation on what the firefighters are exposed to on the ground (and they are more exposed than anyone else); it is important to protect that population. Mike B. added that most of the large fires that we have involve federal land and it is easier to get ARAs when federal land is affected. The desire to get CAL Fire more amenable to working with ARA is an ongoing issue, one that we will continue to address.

There was also a discussion regarding the use of box fans as a “MacGyver” HEPA air filter/cleaner by taping a HEPA filter to the fan. Gary Curcio was going to check with the University of Michigan to see about getting some data that shows the efficacy and safety of using the makeshift air cleaners. Ann Hobbs stated that info on how to make the cleaners was on the California Smoke Blog (Ursula also commended Ann on providing excellent information through the smoke blog during the Camp Fire event).

The Camp Fire was 100% contained as of November 25th, having burned over 153,000 acres. The death count is currently at 88, but over 200 are still missing/unaccounted for, thousands are displaced; 13,696 single family residences, 276 multiple residences, 528 commercial structures were destroyed. There will be more to come out of this fire, and the cleanup efforts have only just begun. It’s difficult to even describe and hard to not become emotional about it. Further discussions should include more on how to effectively request an ARA, how to prevent a tragedy like this from occurring in the first place (could more aggressive prescribed burning activities have prevented it? It yes, how to we accomplish it?), and how to help people protect themselves from the smoke.

Highlights of Past Conferences and Schedule of Upcoming Conferences

• American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting. 10-14 November 2018, San Diego CA. https://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual • 9th International Workshop on Air Quality Forecasting Research (IWAQFR), 7-9 November 2018, Boulder CO. https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/csd/events/iwaqfr/2018/ • 15th International Wildland Fire Safety Summit And 5th Human Dimensions of Wildland Fire Conference, December 10-14 2018, Asheville NC. https://www.iawfonline.org/event/15th- international-wildland-fire-safety-summit-and-5th-human-dimensions-conference/ (Gary Curcio will be presenting at that conference and Mike asked him to give us a brief summary in Feb on that meeting) • American Geophysical Union (AGU) Annual Meeting, December 10-14 2018, Washington DC. https://fallmeeting.agu.org/2018/welcome/ (and number of folks on the call will be at that conference) o NEW SESSION: Extreme Fire 2018 Thursday 4-6pm • After the Flames – April 1-3, 2019, Denver, CO http://aftertheflames.com/ • 6th Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference, April 29-May 3, 2019, Call for papers closes October 31, 2018, simultaneously in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Sydney, Australia; Marseille, France https://www.iawfonline.org/event/6th-fire-behavior-and-fuels-conference/ • Third Annual National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy Workshop, October 21-24, 2019; Plymouth, MA, https://www.iawfonline.org/event/2019_cohesive_strategy_workshop/ • Wildfire 2019 - 7th International Wildland Fire Conference, October 28-November 01, 2019, Campo Grande - MS, Brazil

Next International Smoke Symposium will be in April 2020, Boise ID.

Prescribed Fire Creative Solutions (Mike Broughton)

As we all know, most Rx burns will affect someone, but how much? We can model well in advance using climatology, and we can model the day prior and the day of the burn, and the models are improving, but what else can we use to increase the # of Rx burns that are being done so that we can decrease the # of wildfires and size of wildfires? Knowing what the potential pitfalls are in advance and discussing these between the burners and the regulators leads to creative solutions. In Colorado they use respite monitors, with reduced activity the following day.

Increasing Participation & Proposed Webinar Format for 2019 meetings (Mike Broughton) Mike asked the group to think about how we might encourage practitioners to participate on the calls. Please ask around, include folks who might become engaged to join us. Let Mike or Ursula know if you have additions to the email list.

Mike added that for our next meeting, we are going to try to do a webinar. We hope you can all attend the next meeting on February 26th .