Nassau County commissioners pass memorandum to limit public’s exposure to smoke

Some residents express concerns over burning debris

NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. – Some Nassau County residents are expressing their concerns over burning debris.

The residents who live in the Harbor Concourse area say they’re having lung problems from intense amounts of smoke.

Nassau County commissioners on Monday evening voted 3-2 to pass a memorandum to help fix these concerns.

Kathy Reed lives in the Harbor Concourse area, where developers have been burning debris using air curtain incinerators, which are supposed to reduce air emissions while burning.

“It’s a scary thing when your health is for sale,” Reed said.

According to neighbors, developers were burning debris with these decisions for seven days a week for six weeks.

“They talk about smoke in the morning. No, it was like that all day long. It was a haze that went over the property,” Reed said.

Reed said she now has inflamed lungs from the smoke.

Nassau County Commissioner Aaron Bell spoke against air curtain incinerator burning at Monday night’s commission meeting.

“There’s no way it was done properly,” he said.

When Bell asked if the county could ban open burning altogether, he was told that wouldn’t be possible.

Under the memorandum passed Monday night by commissioners to help move the smoke away from residents, these are now the rules for air curtain incinerators:

  • Residents have to have a permit from the Florida Forest Service
  • Burning cannot be less than 750 feet from an occupied building
  • Burning should be located no less than 100 feet from wildland brush
  • The atmospheric dispersion index between 30 and 100 — more restrictive than forestry requires
  • Start before 9:30 a.m. and flames should be extinguished no more than an hour before sunset

But some people at the commission meeting did speak out against the memorandum.

The county attorney said Nassau County may suspend burning activity if the memorandum is disobeyed.