"Teton County residents have opened an additional front in their fight with Wyoming officials regarding development of state school trust land near Teton Village, this time challenging the approval of a commercial incinerator that opponents claim poses a grave health, fire and economic risk to locals.

Wyoming has permitted the tree-service company Arbor Works to operate an “air curtain burner” on a parcel of state land near the resort village and southern boundary of Grand Teton National Park. Two community organizations say the operation is a health and fire hazard that violates state and federal rules, including elements of the federal Clean Air Act.

Operating the burner will create “considerable health and fire risk if the machine is used as the permit currently allows,” Jenny Fitzgerald, executive director of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, wrote WyoFile in an email. “There is no enforceable regulation of how this machine is operated and the fire risk and air quality can have significant to life changing effects on our community, if used as permitted.”

The Alliance and The Teton Village Association have appealed the permit Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality issued to Arbor Works and the case is scheduled to be argued in a quasi-judicial hearing before the state’s Environmental Quality Council from Oct. 23-25."

Angus M. Thuermer Jr. reports for WyoFile August 6, 2024. [2]