Air regulators ban "visible chimney smoke" from woodstoves in Eugene area By The Oregonian EUGENE — Woodstove owners in the Eugene-Springfield area have been pouring on the fuel during a cold snap, and air-quality regulators say a buildup of pollution means the burning has to be curbed. A ban on visible chimney smoke could last through Sunday, when warmer weather is expected. The Eugene Register-Guard reports such bans may become more frequent because federal standards on particulate pollution have been tightened. The Lane Regional Air Protection Agency imposed a ban in the mountain town Oakridge on Wednesday. The ban imposed Thursday in Eugene-Springfield applies to the urban growth boundary. That includes numerous less-developed areas just outside city limits. It doesn't apply to stoves that burn pellets, and homeowners with efficient stoves burning well-dried wood may be able to get by without creating visible smoke. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Not sure if it was OK to freeze to death though, or what the fine would be if you did...
Now you know this is due to stagnant air from cold inversion and has nothing to do with temperature beyond its affect on inversions right ? At least those who burn clean still can, carefully. http://www.lrapa.org/downloads/press_releases/2015-01-01-Burn_ban_eugene_springfield_oakridge.pdf There are lots of places that suffer from inversions and trapped wood smoke. I don't live in one of them and I still burn as responsibly/cleanly as I can.
I was thinking the same thing. Imagine the air patrol driving around looking at homeowners smokestacks. Making a big "smoke" bust and telling people to heat their house another way until the ban s lifted, ridiculous
Thanks for the info billb3. The inversion situation makes sense to me now. Not an issue locally but I have seen this situation in the Salt Lake City area.
Around me I have a bunch of people who burn dirty, I can drive by at any time and see smoke belching out so I know it's not a reload point. If I was in a low area or area with inversion problems I could see this being a real issue. If people burned clean this would be far less of an issue. The people who visit sites like this aren't the problem, it's the people who don't care that screw it up for the good guys. I like being able to breath when I walk out of the house.
All the more reason to season!! This gives even MORE footing to seasoning several years if you possibly can, makes me feel good to be on a 5 year plan now. What really upsets me is they hold no qualms whatsoever to enact a ban, but they make no REAL effort to put nearly as much emphasis/enforcement on EDUCATING woodburners on proper seasoning. Then you hear horror stories where boroughs/townships/locales go after people for having stacks and stores of firewood on their properties. When all some of these people are trying to do is season several years of wood. Dammed if you do, dammed if you don't.
As mentioned in the article the areas in question for the ban are folks with lower incomes and of course their only way to survive the winter is by using wood heat. If the counties/townships (etc) had a plan to educate ( as Scotty mentioned) users on how to burn cleanly and efficiently they could avoid a lot of what they are banning people for in the first place. There has to be another way
What irritates me on the whole issue is there are forces behind the scenes pushing these bans. Not necessarily in troublesome areas (that's understandable, to an extent), but it's kinda like anything else.....once that "inch" is taken, they start looking at the "mile". And we all know the fuel lobbies don't like us woodburners. It gets political from here so I'll end it at that.
It's also obvious (and sad to see) they do this in areas where folks cannot stand up for themselves and cannot fight the govt because of their statuses. Ok ok, I'm done now
Fairbanks has the same problem No bun bans but when the inversion kicks in, terrible air. Feds hitting them with all kinds of pressure to clean up the air. http://www.newsminer.com/news/local...cle_d872495c-6c7b-11e4-ae55-37e6b37d9bdc.html Don't think there'll be burn bans, not that anyone who needs a fire wouldn't burn if they did. ( Burn or freeze ) With the epa folks from Washington, it wouldn't surprise me though. Could have NG there, that would really help. Lots & lots & lots of NG in Alaska. The reason it's not there , Political :: State & Federal
I'm a bit torn on the issue. On one side I don't want anyone telling me when I can burn (not that you can tell by looking at my chimney anyway). But on the flip side, there is a guy near me who's chimney emits thick smoke from fall to spring, all day, every day. I suspect he cuts from his logs in the front yard, splits them, and straight into the stove. Every area has one of these and some times several of them but luckily I'm not affected by him as I'm far enough away. Being able to breath in your own yard is underrated until you can't.
