Open Burning Variances

What is open burning?

Open burning is defined under 326 IAC 4-1-0.5(6) as "the burning of any materials wherein air contaminants resulting from combustion are emitted directly into the air, without passing through a stack or chimney from an enclosed chamber." Open burning is generally prohibited in Indiana.

However, there are exceptions, which are described in the rules on Open Burning, found in 326 IAC 4 [PDF].

It also is noteworthy that 326 IAC 4-1-5 states that, "Any person who allows the accumulation or existence of combustible material which constitutes or contributes to a fire causing air pollution may not refute liability for violation of this rule (326 IAC 4-1) on the basis that said fire was set by vandals, accidental, or an act of God."

The Conditions Under Which Open Burning is Allowed

All of the various allowable open burning activities described on this page can only be performed under certain conditions (as described under 326 IAC 4-1-3(b) [PDF], including that:

Burning must be done during safe weather conditions, not during high winds, temperature inversions, or on pollution alert days.
Burning must be done during daylight hours.
Fires must be attended until completely extinguished.
Fires must be extinguished if they create a hazard, nuisance, pollution problem or threat to public health.
Fire fighting equipment adequate for the size of the fire must be nearby.
Burning activities also must comply with all other federal, state and local laws, rules and ordinances.

Situations When Open Burning is Allowed

The following types of fires are allowed:

Maintenance burning;
Private residential burning;
Recreational or ceremonial fires, but only if:
- Clean wood, charcoal, paper, or petroleum products are burned,
- The local fire department was notified 24 hours in advance if the pile to be burned is more than 125 cubic feet (5 ft. X 5 ft. X 5 ft.),
- The fire is not ignited more than 2 hours before the recreational activity is to take place and is extinguished upon the conclusion of the activity,
- The pile to be burned is less than 1000 cubic feet (10 ft. X 10 ft. X10 ft.),
- The fire is not for disposal purposes, and
- The fire is not within 500 feet of a pipeline or fuel storage area;
Burning, for the purpose of heating, clean wood products or paper in a noncombustible container that is sufficiently vented to induce adequate combustion and has enclosed sides and a bottom;
Waste oil, but only that waste oil spilled during oil well testing, and only if collected in a burn-off pit as described under 312 IAC 16-5-11 [PDF] (see Article 16. Oil and Gas, and scroll down to Rule 5, Section 11, "Fire Prevention"), previously 310 IAC 7-1-37(a). All burn-off pits must be located a safe distance from any oil well, oil storage tank, building, or other structure and must be constructed to prevent the escape of oil and be of sufficient height to prevent surface water from entering the pit. No burn-off pit shall be constructed where the soil is porous and closely underlaid by either gravel or sand strata. The walls of a burn-off pit shall be kept free of vegetation.
- Note: Although 312 IAC 16-5-11 also lists other waste oil, including cut oil, bottom sediments, and tank bottoms as being suitable for burning in a burn-off pit, operators must obtain an open burning variance from IDEM before burning any waste oil other than waste oil spilled during oil well testing.
Prescribed burning by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources or the U.S. Forest Service;
Burning by fire fighters to create fire breaks to extinguish an existing wildfire; or
Burning clean petroleum products for fire extinguisher training.

Maintenance Burning

There are specific instances, as listed in greater detail in 326 IAC 4-1-3 [PDF], when a person may open burn the following for maintenance purposes:

Vegetation (from a farm, nursery, orchard, tree farm, cemetery [see IC 13-17-9-1(a)(1)], or draining ditch),
Vegetation from agricultural land if the open burn occurs in an unincorporated area,
Wood products derived from pruning or clearing a roadside by a county highway department,
Wood products derived from the initial clearing of a public utility right-of-way in an unincorporated area, and
Undesirable wood structures on real property, or wood remnants of the demolition of such a structure originally located on real property, located in an unincorporated area. Asbestos-containing materials must be removed and may not be burned.

Open Burning at Private Residences

Open burning at a private residence should not be construed to mean the on-site open burning of construction debris associated with the construction of a private residence. Residential open burning (household or yard waste) is banned totally in Lake, Porter, Clark, and Floyd counties. In all other Indiana counties, private residential (buildings with 4 or fewer dwelling units, but not apartment or condominium complexes or mobile home parks) open burning is permitted, but only in accordance with the following rules:

Only paper or clean wood products (woody vegetation, leaves, or wood which is not coated with stain, paint, glue or other coating material, and no treated lumber) may be burned.
Materials may only be burned in a noncombustible container that is sufficiently vented to induce adequate combustion and has enclosed sides and a bottom; burning on the ground is illegal.
Burning must be done during safe weather conditions, not during high winds or on pollution alert days.
Burning must be done during daylight hours.
Fires must be attended until completely extinguished.
Fires must be extinguished if they create a hazard, nuisance, pollution problem or threat to public health.
Fire fighting equipment adequate for the size of the fire must be nearby.
Burning activities also must comply with all other federal, state and local laws, rules and ordinances. It is particularly important that residents check with their local fire or health department because some cities or counties may have local ordinances which are more stringent than state open burning laws. (For example, in Indianapolis dried twigs and branches may be burned, but not leaves or paper, and the burning must be done in a ventilated, mesh-covered container. In addition, burning is allowed only between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m, and fines for open burning violations in Indianapolis can range from $50 to $2,500.)

Note: Although, as outlined above, the open burning of certain household wastes such as paper or clean wood products (woody vegetation, leaves, or wood which is not coated with stain, paint, glue or other coating material, and no treated lumber) may be burned under the appropriate conditions, burning of other types of household waste, such as various types of plastic, is not allowed.

This prohibition is supported by recent EPA study completed at the National Risk Management Research Laboratory in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. According to the study's co-author, Paul Lemieux, emissions from the burning in a 55 gallon barrel of an estimated one week's-worth of household waste generated by a family of four -- including newspapers, books, magazines, junk mail, cardboard, milk cartons, food waste, various types of plastic, cans, bottles and jars, but not including any paint, grease, oil and other household wastes known to be hazardous were several orders of magnitude higher than those produced by controlled burning in a modern municipal waste incinerator.

That is, burning a week's-worth of trash from a single home in an open barrel can put as much of some toxic chemicals (such as dioxin and furans) in the air as a well-controlled municipal incinerator burning the trash from thousands of homes.

It is also noteworthy that smoke from burning five pounds of leaves contains about one pound of air pollution.

See IDEM's open burning fact sheet for more information on residential open burning.

Emergency Burning

In certain emergency situations, open burning of specific materials may be allowed with verbal approval from IDEM.

Emergency burning of leaked or spilled liquid or gaseous petroleum products when all reasonable efforts to recover the spilled material have been made and failure to burn would result in an imminent fire or health hazard or health hazard or air or water pollution problem.
Emergency burning of clean wood wastes, vegetation, or deceased animals resulting from a natural disaster where failure to burn would result in an imminent health or safety hazard.

Variances

In addition to those limited instances cited above when open burning is allowed persons may submit an application seeking approval from IDEM to engage in open burning. Application packets for open burning variances are available from the IDEM Office of Air Quality.

326 IAC 4 -1-4.1(a) [PDF], list some other types of burning which may considered by IDEM for variance approvals for open burning. They include, but are not limited to:

Burning for purposes of fire training.
Burning natural growth derived from a clearing operation.
Burning high explosives or other dangerous material where no alternative disposal method exists or where transportation of the material would be dangerous.
Burning clean wood products.
Burning natural growth for the purpose of land management.

326 IAC 4-1-4.1(b) [PDF] lists criteria which may be considered when determining whether to approve or deny a variance request, including, but not limited to:

Demonstration by the applicant that alternative disposal methods are impractical or prohibitively expensive,
There are not more than five (5) residences or structures within 500 feet of the proposed burning site,
There are not past open burning violations by the applicant at the site,
If the application involves a structure for fire training, the structure has not been demolished prior to training activities, and
The burning site is located in a county that is not designated as being in nonattainment of particulate matter (PM10) or ozone.

The variance request may be denied if these specific criteria are not met.

Note: Not only is residential open burning (household or yard waste) banned totally in Lake, Porter, Clark, and Floyd counties, but no variances shall be granted for residential open burning in those counties.

Once a variance is approved, under 326 IAC 4-1-4.1(d) [PDF] the open burning shall, unless otherwise stipulated in the approval letter, be subject to the following conditions:

Only clean wood products (woody vegetation, leaves, or wood which is not coated with stain, paint, glue or other coating material, and no treated lumber) may be burned.
No asbestos-containing materials shall be burned.
Burning must be done during safe weather conditions, not during high winds or on pollution alert days.
Burning must be done during daylight hours, and fires must be extinguished prior to sunset.
Fires must be attended until completely extinguished.
Fires must be extinguished if they create a hazard, nuisance, pollution problem or threat to public health.
The local fire department must be notified at least 24 hours in advance.
The approval letter from IDEM must be at the site and available to local and state officials upon request.
Adequate fire fighting equipment shall be on-site.
No burning shall take place within 100 feet of a structure or power line, or within 300 feet of a frequently traveled road, fuel storage area, or pipeline.
Burning activities must comply with all other federal, state and local laws, rules and ordinances.
No waste that is regularly generated as a result of routine business activities may be burned.
The material to be burned shall not exceed 1000 cubic feet (that is, it should be a volume smaller than 10 ft. X 10 ft. X 10 ft).

In addition to the prohibition on burning asbestos or asbestos-containing materials, variances are also not issued for burning waste tires or lumber treated with such materials as arsenic, chromium, copper, or creosote.

Air Curtain Destructors

In addition, with prior approval from the IDEM Office of Air Quality, clean wood waste and woody vegetative wastes may be burned on site using an air curtain destructor, as described in the open burning regulations under 326 IAC 4 -1-(6-8) [PDF]. An air curtain destructor is an engineered apparatus consisting of a high-velocity fan to force air through ducts (know as canisters) in such a manner as to facilitate more rapid and complete combustion of wastes being burned in a pit.

IDEM approval must be obtained prior to the use of air curtain destructors; an application packet is available online from the IDEM Office of Air Quality. Air curtain destructors may not be permanently located, and IDEM approval for operation of such a device must be obtained each time it is relocated to a new project location. However, the burn pit may be relocated one or more times within a project location without the need to obtain an additional approval letter, provided the project location has been identified in the initial request. Approval letters, which must be onsite during the operation of the air curtain destructor, are valid for one year only.

For Additional Information

For further information regarding open burning, or to file a complaint about open burning, call

IDEM Office of Air Quality
Air Compliance
Phone: (800) 451-6027 extension 3-5674

You can also contact the nearest IDEM regional office, or view this statewide inspector map to contact the inspector for your county.

If you have an open burning complaint, you can submit it on-line at the IDEM Pollution Complaint Clearinghouse.

Prior to undertaking any open burning activities, please remember to also contact the local fire department, county board of health, or other local authority. Local jurisdictions may have open burning ordinances which are more stringent than Indiana's open burning rules.

To obtain an application for an open burning variance or an application to use an air curtain destructor, or to determine whether a variances has been issued for a specific open burning activity, you may contact

Open Burning Variance Coordinator
IDEM Office of Air Quality
Phone: (317) 233-5672

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