Fires are returning to South Florida sugar cane fields, fanning the flames of dispute over smoke and ash from burning during harvest season.
From October to April, sugar cane producers burn their grassy fields to expose sugar-filled stalks targeted during harvesting.
Billowing smoke and the ash that rains down are most noticeable in the western Glades communities where the sugar cane is grown, but winds can carry the smell and ash to more-populated communities near the coast.
The Sierra Club over the summer launched a renewed effort to stop the burning that environmental advocates say pollutes the air and causes health problems across the region. Critics argue that everything from asthma attacks to itchy eyes are worsened by the burning.
But as another harvest begins, sugar industry leaders on Wednesday defended the burning. They dispute air pollution concerns and health threats, while accusing environmental advocates of using the issue to try to phase out farming.
“This attack is simply another of their efforts to put the sugar industry out of business,” said Judy Sanchez, senior director of communications for U.S. Sugar Corp. She said stopping the burning “would significantly impact our business and take jobs away.”
The two sides contend that the dispute is expected to spawn a legal fight.
The Sierra Club has called for the state to deny burn permits for sugar cane growers. And if the state won’t do it, the Sierra Club plans to push for federal regulators to rein in the burning.
“There is a foul stench. You are breathing that toxic air. It’s a terrible situation,” said Frank Jackalone, of the Sierra Club. “They burn to save money [and] they are passing the cost to the rest of us.”
About 400,000 acres of sugar cane grows in the farming region south of Lake Okeechobee, much of it in western Palm Beach County.
Sugar producers project that the upcoming harvest will produce nearly 17 million tons of sugar cane, which could be turned into more than 2 million tons of sugar.
Growers for decades have set fire to sugar cane fields — about 40 acres at a time — to burn away the sugar-less, leafy portions of the plant surrounding the stalks. Soon after the fast-burning fires die down, harvesting machines roll in to chop down and collect the stalks that are taken to sugar mills for processing.
While air pollutants do spike during the actual burning, that dissipates and the sugar cane burning doesn’t violate federal air quality standards, according to Tim O’Connor, state health department spokesman in Palm Beach County.
The Sierra Club counters that the state isn’t testing for many of the pollutants generated by burning sugar cane. The environmental group also says that other sugar cane producing regions, including Australia and Brazil, have already stopped burning sugar cane fields.
The club also says alternatives to burning include cutting away the leafy portions of sugar cane and using it to mulch the fields. Sugar producers could also truck away grassy material to burn as biofuel in processing plants that have more pollution controls.
The sugar industry Wednesday holding a media conference call to defend the burning shows “they have hit the panic button” over the Sierra Club’s planned legal challenge, Jackalone said.
“We are trying to help rural communities by making them healthier places to live,” Jackalone said.
Sugar industry representatives argue that field burning remains the most efficient way to get rid of the unneeded parts of the sugar cane stalk. They say trucking away sugar cane leftovers to burn at processing plants would lead to more vehicle emissions.
And chopping and mulching instead of burning “is just not feasible” on South Florida’s muck soils, because of concerns that the mulching would smother the next crop, according to Barbara Miedema, vice president for the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida.
While air-quality monitoring in the region shows that the fires don’t violate health standards, the smoke can still irritate people vulnerable to smoke and dust, O’Connor said.
“You can smell it all the way to the ocean and … on a windy day some of the ash will drop in the coastal cities,” O’Connor said.
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