I pit illegal burning

The BBQ Pit
21

[QUOTE=Finagle]
I’m not sure what they’re doing is actually illegal.
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But I’m sure, and so was Mr. EPA each time he came out to investigate.

The laws are convoluted and also have a lot to do with distance from a city of X number of people and other factors, but at the very least the fires are within 1,000 feet of several inhabited buildings.

Well a lot of things are ingrained and that doesn’t make them right. They’re the ones breaking the law. If it makes me unpopular to notice it and do something about it, then oh well.

22

[QUOTE=Sublata]
thanks her lucky stars she hasn’t got any neighbors like the OP.
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WTF? Once again, sounds like you think it’s MY fault for noticing my neighbors are breaking the law.

Listen, my neighbors probably do a lot of things I don’t like, but that isn’t the point because most of it isn’t my business. When I have to suck their smoke it becomes my business.

And why are you missing the point that the EPA guy isn’t going to give out a ticket if what they are doing is legal? There’s a reason illegal burning carries such a big fine.

23

[QUOTE=Captain_C]
Well, what else would you do with your trash in a rural area? My parents have always, and still do, burn their trash every couple days. Heck, that chore falls on me when I am up there. There isn’t any garbage pick-up offered on their road, and you can’t let it sit or animals might get into it, so what else would you do with it? Make a big pile out back to accumulate over the years?
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You can pay to have it taken away or you can take it to the nearest county approved dump site.

24

While you may technically be in the right, don’t expect to be invited over to the bonfire parties this summer.

25

[QUOTE=Crotalus]
On the farms that surround my town, the farmers seem to have the attitude that they will do whatever they please on their land.
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The law doesn’t agree with them, but I agree that seems to be the general attitude.

Individual towns and municipalties in Ohio are allowed to have laws that are more strict than EPA guidelines, but their ordinances cannot be less strict. Your burning of twigs and sticks within a fire ring might be legal, if the ring is 3 feet in diameter, if you are always in attendance while the fire burns and you put it out when you leave, and other things. In that case your fire would fall under the category of “pleasure fire,” but the minute leaves or other items go into the fire it wouldn’t be classified as a pleasure fire and you’d fall into the “not within 1,000 feet of another residence” regulation. The laws do seem unnecessarily complex, but they can be understood by anyone who really wants to know.

26

Well I have nothing really, except that I read William Wharton’s [Ever After](Ever After: A Father’s True Story ) a few years ago and have been cautious ever since.

27

[QUOTE=Captain_C]
Well, what else would you do with your trash in a rural area? My parents have always, and still do, burn their trash every couple days. Heck, that chore falls on me when I am up there. There isn’t any garbage pick-up offered on their road, and you can’t let it sit or animals might get into it, so what else would you do with it? Make a big pile out back to accumulate over the years?
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Every other week or so I take it to a transfer station that in turn takes it to the land fill. Really not a big deal. 'cept when they are closed when they are supposed to be open like last Sunday. :mad:

Now that we have the yard cleaned up, I only burn about once a year. Burn permit is from the fire dept.

28

[QUOTE=enipla]
Burn permit is from the fire dept.
[/QUOTE]
I’m sure the law varies by state, but in Ohio the fire departments cannot give permits - although they do.

Mr. EPA told me of a time when was driving down the road and he saw a huge plume of smoke. He pulled into the man’s driveway to see what was going on. There was a giant pile of wood and other rubbish on fire, INSIDE the city limits, within 500 feet of a school playground.

He approached the man and asked to see his permit to burn, knowing he was the only person authorized to issue such a permit and he hadn’t. The man cheerfully showed him a permit issued by the local fire chief.

It has become apparent to me that feelings about burning run high for some reason, and that few people - including local fire departments - care what the law is. But this is important to me, and although I might be tilting at windmills and I might make enemies, I’m going to keep caring about it.

29

[QUOTE=Sprockets]

But this is important to me, and although I might be tilting at windmills and I might make enemies, I’m going to keep caring about it.
[/QUOTE]

So far you’ve succeeded in getting them to burn on weekends when Mr. EPA isn’t on duty. Good job.

30

[QUOTE=Sprockets]
The law doesn’t agree with them, but I agree that seems to be the general attitude.

Individual towns and municipalties in Ohio are allowed to have laws that are more strict than EPA guidelines, but their ordinances cannot be less strict. Your burning of twigs and sticks within a fire ring might be legal, if the ring is 3 feet in diameter, if you are always in attendance while the fire burns and you put it out when you leave, and other things. In that case your fire would fall under the category of “pleasure fire,” but the minute leaves or other items go into the fire it wouldn’t be classified as a pleasure fire and you’d fall into the “not within 1,000 feet of another residence” regulation. The laws do seem unnecessarily complex, but they can be understood by anyone who really wants to know.
[/QUOTE]

Sweet Jesus! have you gone over and measured their fire ring? Have you watched them and noted if they are not in attendance every second? What happens if a leaf falls off the tree and floats gently down and hits the fire accidentally?

There is a name for you around here, we would call you Gladys Kravitz

31

[QUOTE=FarmerChick]
Sweet Jesus! have you gone over and measured their fire ring? Have you watched them and noted if they are not in attendance every second? What happens if a leaf falls off the tree and floats gently down and hits the fire accidentally?
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I’m at a loss to understand why you need to attack me personally, and I didn’t think name-calling was permitted. I was telling someone else what the law is in Ohio. I actually find it interesting. I’m not the one who enforces it.

32

[QUOTE=Sprockets]
… There was a giant pile of wood and other rubbish on fire…
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Wood =/= rubbish. What was the rubbish? And is there rubbish involved in all your neighbors’ fires?

When we clear brush, remove fallen trees, or tear down the old barn, we burn. The products are the same as, but smaller in scale than, what goes up my chimney when I have a fire in the fireplace. I would be distinctly unhappy with a neighbor who interfered with this.

On the other hand, if someone was throwing old tires onto the wood pile, you would have a case I’d support.

Which is it?

33

I’m totally not understanding why it is good to send brush and so forth to a landfill and bad to burn it on one’s country property, apparently with at least a rumored permit from some official or other. (Sorry, had the GBCF* thing going on with the OP.) I’m thinking maybe what you think is “country” is more what I think of as “suburbs.” That might explain it.

I live in the country and can’t imagine calling the authorities on any of my neighbors for anything less than some kind of violent crime or abuse. People out here burn stuff all the time. They make their living from the land, so I pretty much trust them not to burn things that will destroy the land. (I tend to believe the best of people until I have proof to the contrary, but I’m aware not everybody is that way.) We burn sometimes, too, and we have a permit from the local fire marshal to do so. I never thought to check with the EPA or the FDA or the NAACP or NAMBLA, so I guess we could be breaking some law or ordinance, but I know none of our neighbors would be big enough pricks to turn us in if we were. If we did something really egregious, they’d come over and talk to us, I suppose.

The OP reminds me of something my husband says a county west of the TCs did–I can’t recall which one, or I’d provide a cite. They printed up a cow-manure scratch-and-sniff postcard and sent it to people who inquired about living there because they’d had many city dwellers moving in and then inundating police and other agencies with complaints about “offensive odors.”

Just judging by my own experience–and I’m a transplanted city kid myself–I doubt you’re going to change any minds about burning in your neighborhood, and I know damn well you’re not going to make any friends, but hey, it’s your life, and if being right is more important to you than getting along with your neighbors, I wish you well.

  • Got bored, couldn’t finish.
34

[QUOTE=CannyDan]
Wood =/= rubbish. What was the rubbish? And is there rubbish involved in all your neighbors’ fires?
[/QUOTE]
I don’t know. What I do know - and what I’m said here repeatedly - is that when Mr. EPA went to the fires to investigate, in each case he issued a citation or a fine. That means they were in some way illegal.

Once again, for some reason I’m not getting through and I’m getting hammered here. If your neighbor reports you for doing something which is found to be illegal by the authorities, it is your fault for breaking the law and not your neighbor’s fault for noticing it and reporting it. That seems obvious to me, but apparently it doesn’t to other people.

35

[QUOTE=Sprockets]
I’m at a loss to understand why you need to attack me personally, and I didn’t think name-calling was permitted. I was telling someone else what the law is in Ohio. I actually find it interesting. I’m not the one who enforces it.
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[QUOTE=Sprockets]
I don’t know. What I do know - and what I’m said here repeatedly - is that when Mr. EPA went to the fires to investigate, in each case he issued a citation or a fine. That means they were in some way illegal.

Once again, for some reason I’m not getting through and I’m getting hammered here. If your neighbor reports you for doing something which is found to be illegal by the authorities, it is your fault for breaking the law and not your neighbor’s fault for noticing it and reporting it. That seems obvious to me, but apparently it doesn’t to other people.
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Ummm.. you are in the pit, you are being a self-rightous PITA, IMO, and like others have said, I am very happy you didn’t move next to me.

36

[QUOTE=fisha]
So, you’ve lived out in the boonies for a couple of months. And the boonies isn’t necessarily what you’d thought it would be. And your neighbors aren’t thrilled with your enlightened demeanor. And even though the EPA weenie makes nice nice noises from his office in the city, you still aren’t getting your way.

If I want to be really uncharitable, I’d say no one asked you and your attitude to move out to the sticks.

But I understand there is an adjustment period. And you could turn out to be really good folks, if given half a chance and trained in right.

But you OP just reeks of self righteous entitlement and busybodiness. Calm the fuck down. Get a feel for your environment before you go on a rampage.

Be polite, be nice, talk seldom and listen much, and you might learn some really valuable things.

Stop running around stirring up shit. The only thing that happens when you stir up shit is you get it all over yourself.
*“I’m sure my neighbors hate me, because nothing pisses off people more than being busted for doing something wrong. The fact that they wouldn’t be busted unless they were wrong probably won’t occur to them, because it’s so much yummier to blame someone else. But I can’t let that stop me. I quit smoking four years ago, and I didn’t move to the country to suck down someone else’s smoke.”
*
People don’t hate you for being caught at doing something wrong, because 10 to 1, they’re not doing anything wrong. They are going to hate you for being a sanctimonious bitch who thinks she can bully her neighbors.

“(It occurs to me that, lest I appear as though I have a stick up my ass for neighbors, I don’t care what they do on their own property on their own time unless it impacts on my life AND it’s illegal.)”

I call bullshit. You don’t like it, you just try to back up your opinion with the voice of authority. If this was cow manure, you’d be calling up Soil and Water, or an equivalent, saying how they must be doing something wrong, and it smells. Like cows. Eww.

Sorry the picture postcards aren’t quite meshing with the reality.

Fisha-former suburbanite who moved out to the sticks 18 years ago. I love it, but I’ve seen a lot of people just like the OP come and go.
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Yeah. What Fisha said.

Your neighbors have been doing things the same way for years, you move in and want to change them because you don’t like their ways. Sure, the law MAY be on your side but being a self appointed fire marshall (aka spy) is just annoying. I recommend you move as well.

37

So, you don’t have any idea what is being burned, or the circumstances of any of the burns. All you know is that they produce smoke. It offends you, and you believe that some “letter of the law” is being violated along with your apparently tender sensibilities.

You have found a single bureaucrat who supports you, and is willing to find some fault and issue some kind of reprimand. None of which is supported by the local citizenry, the local fire chief, or the local constabulary.

Maybe you should carry your crusade on to the state police. Clearly those brush fires are a serious but unrecognized danger to the townsfolk! And you might save them, and become a hero.

Alternatively, you might find yourself really lonely when the power goes out, or you get your car stuck in a ditch this winter, or you need help getting the fallen tree off your shed. You know, the kinds of things that country neighbors typically help out with?

The choice is yours. Enjoy the results!

38

I’m done. I posted something that mattered to me, I explained myself repeatedly, but you people are misinterpreting and just misreading what I’ve said. I am really outraged by your absurd reactions, especially as I am not at all the person you are deciding I am. I can only conclude you are not reasonable people, and I cannot believe you would treat another human being with such nastiness if you were right in front of them instead of safely behind your computer screens.

39

[QUOTE=Sprockets]
I’m done. I posted something that mattered to me, I explained myself repeatedly, but you people are misinterpreting and just misreading what I’ve said. I am really outraged by your absurd reactions, especially as I am not at all the person you are deciding I am. I can only conclude you are not reasonable people, and I cannot believe you would treat another human being with such nastiness if you were right in front of them instead of safely behind your computer screens.
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Sprockets, I know I am not misreading you, nor am I misinterpreting what you are saying. You are just not hearing what we are saying back to you. I am sorry if you are outraged, but your single-mindedness and utter disregard for any other stance, including backing down a bit and looking at the situation rationally is ludicrous.

If you truly want a workable solution, may I recommend that you go apologize to your neighbour for being such a wanker, and then try to work out a solution to the problem.

And what exactly is the problem anyway? The fact what they are doing is “illegal” or the fact that the smoke truly is bothering you?

If you have real health concerns, and IF you can make amends with your neighbor, I think you will find that the vast majority of country folk really are easy to get along with.

If it is just that is is illegal, well then there is no solution, yup, you’re a wanker.

40

[QUOTE=Sprockets]
I posted something that mattered to me…
[/QUOTE]
We’re just trying to figure out why. Smoke, odors, insects and the occasional sound of dynamite is not unexpected in a rural setting. You should get used to it.