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Board may exempt cleaner fireplaces
(Sacramento Bee, The (CA) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Sep. 28--Local air pollution officials on Thursday stopped short of voting on a proposed rule to outlaw burning of firewood on certain winter days in Sacramento County.
The board of directors of the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District instructed its staff to explore exemptions for owners of cleaner-burning fireplace inserts and stoves.
The board, composed of county supervisors and members of city councils, wants the option of exempting for at least one year properly operated and maintained wood-fired or pellet-fueled heaters equipped with government-certified emission controls. Board members said they might want that exemption dropped on days when air pollution is forecast to be especially high.
The board is scheduled to vote on the revised proposal on Oct. 25.
Steve Cohn, a Sacramento city councilman, said Thursday he is concerned that banning use of cleaner wood and pellet heaters on bad air days would discourage people from upgrading to these lower-polluting models.
"I would like to encourage people to reduce their emission all the time, not just on 'no-burn days,' " said Cohn, who's also a lawyer for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District.
The proposed ban is designed to reduce by 30 percent emissions of soot and other tiny exhaust particles to meet newly tightened federal air quality standards by 2012. Wood-burning fireplaces, inserts and stoves account for an estimated 49 percent of this particle pollution in the county during the winter.
The proposal is modeled after a measure adopted in 2003 by the eight-county San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District. Officials in that district say the imposition of no-burn days is largely responsible for particle pollution levels in the Valley dropping by nearly one-third in the past three years
Some residents told the board that they save $100 or more a month by supplementing their central gas or electric heating with the efficient, EPA-certified wood and pellet stoves.
Lauren Hammond, a Sacramento council member, said the air district would have a hard time explaining to homeowners who invested in cleaner, more economical heaters not to use them on cold days.
"When people make an investment like that, spending thousands of dollars to do the right thing, it puts government in a difficult position," Hammond said.
Most of the 10 members at Thursday's air district hearing indicated they would support mandatory no-burn days so long as owners of low-polluting heaters are given some accommodation.
Many pointed out, however, that owners of the certified heaters still could be cited and fined if the smoke is visible, a sign that they are burning unseasoned wood or trash.
None on the board or in the audience of about 100 in the county supervisors' chambers Thursday disputed the seriousness of health risks from breathing wood smoke, which were underscored by Glennah Trochet, the county's health officer.
"If the rule is implemented, 220,000 people in our county will breathe easier," Trochet said, referring the number of people in the county known to have asthma. "It's a small price to pay for improved air quality and health in our county."
To see more of The Sacramento Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sacbee.com/.
Copyright (c) 2007, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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