Why don't these lawmakers just ban burning green wood? A simple moisture tester would be a fair approach. It would improve safety (reduce chimney fires) and minimize the smoke output. It's reasonable to believe that only a small fraction of burners are causing the troublesome bulk of emissions. If it were my area I'd be in the township / city / borough meetings every single meeting about it. Ignorant yuppies don't learn anything unless they're taught.
I agree. Constant smoke is a nuisance and a health hazard. I'll bet there are laws already on the books in every town/city in this country that could be used to shut real offenders down. My issue is when guv makes blanket policies and regulations that effect everyone in a negative way, instead of just the offenders.
Thats pretty much how it works here, every time it gets clear and cold we get hit with a burn ban, starts out with a stage 1 ( burning allowed in certified stoves only) than a day or so later changes to a stage 2 ( no burning at all) We just went through this again this week , warmed up a little yesterday and started raining so went back down to a stage 1, $1K fine if you get caught violating the rules ( so they say) http://www.pscleanair.org/priorities/woodheating/Pages/burnbans.aspx http://www.pscleanair.org/priorities/woodheating/Pages/burnbans.aspx http://www.pscleanair.org/priorities/woodheating/Pages/woodburninglaw.aspx
The #1 offender in my area is the exact opposite of yuppie. It is a tiny run down home that I suspect may not have another source of heat. He even leaves the ladder up against the roof all winter. I'm betting he has to go up there a lot.
I meant the people passing the regulations don't pass a regulations that work - they pass regulations that make their wealthier / more active residents happy. The guy on a shoestring budget burning whatever is probably not plugged in to any of this and obviously needs to learn about wood burning too.
I'd be ALL FOR them banning the burning of green wood.......dead serious too. Nothing but good would come of it! But like some have said, there are people out there barely scraping by living off of day to day money, that can't afford any other source of heat. A ban REALLY hurts them.....
My IS heats my home i have a pre EPA stove and produce far less smoke than my neighbor that has a newer style stove. I know I probably produce more than most EPA stoves but I like to think I produce far less than most with non EPA stoves.
Bet everyone would agree that a non-EPA stove burning well seasoned wood, would put out less visible smoke than any EPA stove burning wet green wood. Now, to get the jugheads running cities and towns to learn this and regulate the wood first... prolly not gonna happen.
The best place to start is with some real action. If you live in an area that air quality is a real issue......get involved. The fat cats that are writing laws do not heat with wood.....they don't have a clue.
Aside from the issue of responsible burning, the over riding issue once again is "More Good Government". This translates to more of the nonsense of "We know whats good for you, you don't know anything.............................."
Hehehe... that wonderful and famous line always comes to mind... "Hi, I'm here from the guvmint, and we're here to help"...
Here we have a county commission meeting at least once a month. If the idea of offering to educate those that are new to wood burning was serious, that would be the place to start such an endeavour.......
I wonder how much our local firewood dealers would push back against having the public know that wood processed today really isn't fine to burn tomorrow. I've now seen 3 ops and we're 3 for 3... "It's all seasoned, we just processed it this morning, so it's good to go" ... you're so right, educating folks new to burning is the key. The towns could offer assistance to families needing dry firewood too, so they could cover that angle as well.
98% of all laws have always been made for 2% of the population...............The lawyers love the equation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This thread really has made me think. Here we are sparsely populated.....so inversion, and air pollution is not an issue at all. From where I stand looking out this window though.......I see three homes that are belching smoke. Those that live in those homes never cut any wood for next season.......they are lucky to have wood at all. Not only are these folks poor......they are lazy. I can see where a local government might feel the need to regulate how and when these sort of people burn wood. Solutions? I'm not sure. The ones I see from here don't want education......they want handouts. I have wood ready to burn from three years ago.......and my EPA secondary burn stove is making no smoke at all........
How could we and others help educate the public to burn cleaner? To burn only seasoned wood? I've heard of some places in the country that want all firewood sold to be seasoned. Seems like a couple of the New England states maybe.?
The blow your neighbor in online thing is a little out of hand. However, it would seem if there was adequate enforcement of this during no ban and stage 1 periods, it could significantly reduce the frequency of stage 2 bans. However, they state they don't have the resources to follow up on complaints even during stage 2 bans. If wood smoke is a significant contributor to the air quality problem in these areas, it would seem they should start with vigorous enforcement of the nuisance law.
Those are the same types of people I see smoking out the neighborhoods around here. I suspect you could bring them and stack 3 year seasoned wood year after year and they would still find some way to F it up. Some people are poor because of their circumstances, others are poor because they are too lazy to improve their situation. The more you give them, the more they will squander.
