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A Message from Your Air District Clean Wood Burning
By Jessica DePrimo
Winter is almost here. The rains have started, the nights are crisp and cold,
and people everywhere are firing up their woodstoves and fireplaces to heat their homes. Many people love this season because of the cozy scarves and sweaters, pumpkin spice lattes, crackling fires,
and comfort food; but in the world of air quality
we aren’t so romantic; we’re focusing on wood smoke.
What’s the problem with wood smoke? It
can be a pleasant aroma to remind you of the coming of winter, and it signifies the presence
of a toasty, cozy, comfortable fire. But for asthma sufferers and those with odor sensitivities, wood smoke is bothersome and irritating, sometimes debilitating. That’s why the EPA has spent the last 30 years tightening restrictions on wood burning appliances, and why environmental agencies
like the Northern Sonoma County Air Pollution Control District are incentivizing retirement of old, dirty wood-burning appliances.
In urban and suburban areas, such as the
greater Bay Area including Santa Rosa, there are
efforts underway to limit wood burning, such as
the “Spare the Air” and “Don’t Light Tonight” notices you might hear or see advertised on certain days during the winter season. Programs such as this have been shown to benefit wintertime air quality, because they reduce one of the largest wintertime sources of harmful atmospheric pollutants, making the air better for everyone. In the city, where natural gas can be easily plumbed
to any household to use as a heat source, reducing wood burning is feasible. Meanwhile, in the north and western (i.e. more rural) parts of Sonoma County, which is under jurisdiction of a separate (rural) air district, gas service is not as common, and much of the population depends on wood burning appliances to heat their homes. In these areas, restricting wood burning is not very practical. Moreover, in heavily wooded areas, wood (and therefore heat) can be free
or next-to-free, providing an economic incentive to use wood over gas. Air quality policy makers in rural areas recognize the demand, and sometimes
the necessity, for wood burning. Also, because the background air quality is generally cleaner in rural areas, including the northern and western parts of Sonoma County, rural air districts don’t have a need to make such strict wood burning rules.
If you happen to be a resident who depends on a wood burning appliance to heat your home, keep in mind there are ways to optimize your wood burning
to get better heat, reduce wood smoke, and be a better neighbor to those that share the air around you. The first and most effective way to improve your wood burning smoke output is to use an EPA-certified wood burning appliance.
Stay in touch all month long @ www.SonomaCountyGazette.com
What’s the big deal about EPA-certified appliances? Mainly, they are tested and certified to emit less than 4.5 grams of fine particulates per hour of burning. This is in contrast to older, non-certified wood stoves, which emit
BURNING cont’d on page 11
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