“Robert Long loads logging debris atop a permitted commercial burn pile Monday. Those setting small burn piles alight will also have to apply for permits starting June 30.Matt Johnson / staff photoEven though statewide regulations should have stopped almost all unpermitted outdoor burning in Island County as of Jan. 1, county residents are getting a six-month reprieve that will allow them to continue burning as usual until June 30.For a simple lack of negotiation between Island County and the Northwest Air Pollution Authority (NWAPA), a regulation that requires a permit for burning yard and land-clearing waste could not take effect at the start of the new year. Last fall, NWAPA put county officials on notice they needed to come up with a burn permit system by Jan. 1 because the population of unincorporated Island County had exceeded 50,000. That is the threshold at which the 1991 Washington Clean Air Act requires rural counties to end unpermitted residential and commercial burning. At the same time, the state Department of Natural Resources plans to stop issuing permits for large, commercial burns, leaving that duty to air pollution authorities, counties and cities.The Air Pollution Authority gave the Island County Board of Commissioners three options which would satisfy the law. The board can simply ban burning, except for eight days during the year that county residents can burn yard waste without a permit. Under another plan, the county can contract with NWAPA to establish a permitting system, under which every outdoor burn — except camping and cooking fires — would require a permit. Or the county could choose to do that same type of permitting itself.Island County Commissioner Mike Shelton said the board has yet to hammer out a permitting system that county residents can use without too much trouble. Having NWAPA handle the permits could force those who want to burn to travel to the agency’s Mount Vernon headquarters to get a permit, while the ban option might prove unreasonable for those who generate a lot of yard waste.We want this to be reasonable for Island County people, Shelton said.Keeping the permitting local would probably be the best solution, Shelton said, if anyone is willing to handle the process. Both the Island County Sheriff’s Office and county fire districts refuse to take on the responsibility. Shelton said he would hate to see staff at the sheriff’s office forced into permitting duties.It’s not a good use of the deputies’ time, Shelton said.Don Smith, chief of South Whidbey’s Fire Protection District 3, was even more blunt last week about the possibility of his agency becoming the permitting authority.We’re not interested, Smith said.The county commissioners and NWAPA will meet in February to come up with some kind of permitting system. If they do not, all burning will be banned as of June 30 until an agreement is reached. Shelton said Island County should be able to work something out with NWAPA that will make burn permits easily available. To do that, county staff may have to be involved in the permitting process in some way.Until the issue is resolved, county residents may continue to burn natural vegetation without a permit in fires that are smaller than 4 cubic feet in size. Those who burn larger piles must apply to Island County for a burn permit. Burn barrels remain illegal under all circumstances, having been outlawed by NWAPA in 1999.At the turn of the new year, one small portion of unincorporated Island County fell under a permanent burn ban. Residents living in Oak Harbor’s urban growth area may not light waste disposal fires of any kind, nor can they acquire a permit to do so. Oak Harbor city residents are under the same ban. This ban is a preview of one that will encompass all of Island County on Jan. 1, 2006. Starting on that date, no waste-disposal burning will be permitted in the county. “