City of Leavenworth Conducting Controlled Burn as Early as Tuesday

Due to a requirement by the Department of Agriculture, the City of Leavenworth will be conducting a prescribed controlled burn of some green waste as early as Tuesday, October 9th.

The city has been waiting patiently for the Department of Ecology to determine when suitable conditions have been met for the burn. When those conditions have been met, the city will send out a news release to notify the public a minimum of 24 hours before ignition. Chelan County Fire District #3 will oversee the eventual burn.

The controlled burn is a result of the Department of Agriculture's ongoing Apple Maggot Quarantine.

"The City has been recycling this branch and brush and yard waste material for many, many years. Because of the Department of Agriculture's placement of the quarantine for the apple maggot, where they've drawn those lines, the city can no longer take this material down to Stemilt and have it composted." said city administrator Joel Walinski, "So we're forced to come up with some other ideas in terms of where we can take this. We've looked into transferring it to the other side of the mountains because there is [a] compost site closer to Seattle, although that is a fairly expensive process to ship it that far away."

Due to the Apple Maggot Quarantine, Leavenworth officials estimate the city will require around 4 burns per year to adequately eliminate the green waste collected. Although the city would love to have a better solution to the problem, for now at least Leavenworth will just have to make due says Walinski.

"We've looked at a couple of different options, and I think at least for right now this would be probably not our preferred option, but it is an option we're going to use."

The site of this week's burn, as well as presumably future burns, is the city-owned land adjacent to Mountain View Cemetery (12874 Cemetery Road). Roadways may be temporarily blocked during the implementation of the controlled burn, and access will be temporarily restricted in areas near the burn site. The green waste has already been collected and brought to the site, and city staff have been working with Chelan Fire District #3 to monitor the site 24 hours per day.