Prescribed Burn Policy

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) requires open burning permits for the following activities:

1. Fire Fighter Training (burning of structures)
2. Landscape Waste w/Air Curtain Destructor
3. Prairie and Ecological Management Burns
4. Disaster Open Burning

Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) occasionally conducts landscape waste burning and ecological management burns. In keeping with state (Title 35 Part 237 Open Burning) and local (Jackson and Williamson Counties and the City of Carbondale) regulations, any university employee or entity planning to conduct prescribed or open burning, must inform the Center for Environmental Health and Safety (CEHS) at least one-hundred (100) days prior to the intended event to insure that an Application for Open Burning Permit (APC 325) form can be completed and submitted to the IEPA for approval of prescribed burning activities (IEPA has 90 days by law to review a permit application). Copies of this form may be obtained from CEHS or downloaded from the IEPA web site https://www2.illinois.gov/epa/Pages/default.aspx. If the person or entity planning to conduct the prescribed burning activity chooses to obtain their own permits and make their own contacts, CEHS must receive documentation of permitting and contact activity prior to conducting the prescribed burn.

Prescribed burning shall be conducted only by qualified and properly trained personnel, following National Wildfire Coordinating Group Standards or equivalent.

CEHS will notify the Executive Director of Administration, the Executive Director of Finance, and University Risk Management pending approval from IEPA. The appropriate local authorities (the Environmental Health Division of Jackson County Health Department or Franklin-Williamson Bi-County Health Department and local fire department) will be contacted prior to conducting a prescribed burn.