Farmer's dispute with town over wood boiler.

Seen this own you tube the other day. I hope this works out for the farmer. I can see both sides if he is really close to neighbors that have complain about the issue, But the guy being a farmer has me thinking he isn't in a gated community. I think farmers have it bad enough with regulations, inflation and the small man being squeezed out by big corporation.

 

I blame Commiefornia for most of the outdoor heater bans and various progressive desk jockies in state and local gov. I heard on there that there was/is a offer by the gov. agent to pay apx 1/2 cost of replacement with a newer model. Still that is a large chunk of change to pony up for any of us. In my area outright ban on new installations- current users grandfathered in, don't know if replacements are allowed and I am in Farm country, most of the farms here have them. When I looked up the regs no mention indoor boilers though, but they likely have a fit just because.

 

I own a boiler and 3 of my neighbors do too. We live in a neighborhood but are fairly spread out. If you are responsible with what an how you burn you won't bother anyone.

Some boiler owner are, uh...less than courtious...and burn anything and everything and can smoke out everyone a couple miles downwind of them. Some boiler neighbors wake up wondering what they are going to complain about today. Hard to say who is right without being there.

 

That's the type we have next door. Smokes out the whole darn neighborhood all the time. Whole yard will be in a fog in the mornings often. They are 300 yards away and its all wooded between us.

 

there is a pallet company on my way to my shop. somedays with wind from south to north you can't hardly see the freeway. must be timed just right when they have just started them ( 2 boilers).

 

My boiler running 15 minutes after a reload.

 

Here is a few examples. They burn wet / unseasoned wood all the time. We ended up having to block off our fresh air intake on our furnace as it would suck the smoke in in the middle of the night and wake us up thinking the house was on fire. Many, many times. Once the normal breezes of the day start up it predominantly blows the smoke east / north east. Soon as it gets still over night, it creeps all over the neighborhood.

 

Ever have conversation with him about it?

 

Its a she and, lets just say, she's not approachable without it being confrontational. Thats as nicely as I can put it. Lol

 

I absolutely cannot stand those literal smoke dragons that fog up whole valleys/neighborhoods!
I have family that had one that caused huge clouds of smoke to roll across the road...fortunately they finally installed a gasifier and it is so much more efficient (somewhere 50-65% wood savings) that they can now actually get ahead and have dry wood...like lukem, you can't even tell when it's running. (Same brand by the way)
My next door neighbor (800' away) had one and when the wind came from the south we could really smell it...turned out he was burning railroad ties...not kidding!
He finally lost his source when they found out he was burning them, then I heard the boiler was so tarred up he couldn't even sell it. So happy it's gone!

The only one that I can think of in the area that still clouds up whole neighborhoods (and a 4 lane interstate!)
is a boiler at a local Amish lumber mill that they burn scraps in to heat the whole pallet factory with (and probably the offices and a few houses...it's a biggun!) The amount of smoke coming from this thing is unbelievable...they must have had a lot of complaints about it and put a 100' (more?) stack on it...not kidding, it's HUGE! But there is a thick haze over the whole area, sometimes it seems like it must go 1/2 mile or more.
The sad thing about it is if they would have put in something more modern n efficient, it probably wouldnt have cost much more than that huge stack, and could be making all that smoke into BTUs!

 

If the state offered to pay half, and others offered to pitch in, he is a fool to not upgrade! The new gasifiers are sooooo much more efficient, half that pine wood would rot before he got to it! And I know for a fact that some (all?) of the new units will burn that crap as the first winter that my family had their new one, there was a mountain of that crap to clean up...you just have to change the settings for wet wood. Might hafta put a large carport over that pile to keep the rain/snow off of it though.
That unit he's burning in the video there is the same one my people's had...such a dirty pig!!

 

One thing I learned on here when I started visiting this forum was how important burning well seasoned wood is for many reasons. I think some wood boiler owners burn whatever they can get a hold of. I drive but a community the other after work and seen a home owner chimney belching smoke so bad it was probably travelled over 150 yards. It made me wonder if this guy really understood what he was doing to his neighbors. Like backwoods said a man has to be a good neighbor.

 

As my family owns land contiguous to this county.. some extra details.
He is a cantankerous old Vermont dairy farmer.
If you asked him how do you get here? he’d say I don’t!

he’s close to 70, and farm been in family for generations. The smoke dragon heats his barn and has for over 20 years.
The reason it’s a problem now.. “they” built million dollar houses around farm

the state offered to pay 1/2.. of state approved replacement; well thats over $30,000 and it says will heat xxx feet
Problems:

It’s 15,000 for a farmer that hand milks 70-90 cows a day

He wants proof “ it will heat xxx square feet” BUT he is heating a hundred year old barn… we all know wood stoves company that say a 2 cu foot fire box can heat 2,000 square feet. BS

on what fuel? He runs thing on pulp wood mill rejects he gets for free read green .. more efficient boilers like dry wood.. old farmer is right

what’s his incentive the state has levied enough in fines, the farm will have to be sold; when he dies or cannot farm it. He’s 70 and these generous donations are from the same 3 million house owners (flat landers) that got him the fines, in the first place!

THEY FAFO He don’t care

 

I don’t use an OWB but my neighbors do , who are farmers , run 4 of them . The smoke is so bad it just ridiculous. They do burn tires at night .
They cut live trees in the winter and then it goes straight to the boilers . They have zero firewood ready for next season .
I don’t blame the neighbors at all for having to put up with the smoke .

 

I see both sides of it, but to me the farmer is being stubborn, and is ignorant of what could be.
And I'm not one to stick up for the morons that move into mcmansions built on/all around farm land and then whine cuz it smells like farm...DUH! The farm was there first skippy!

 

Me and some buddies goose hunt on farm. This old timer has been there since forever and they have slowly built up houses, golf course, etc all around him.

Almost every year we get the cops / DNR called on us. 5 guys shooting 3 shots each of 3.5" 12G in 5 seconds will get some attention. Whenever we tell him sorry about the neighbors his response is "F them I was here first". We are technically outside of city limits and well within hunting regulations, but the neighbors sure do like to get bent up about it.

 

Woodboilers are akin to pitbulls it seems?

I dunno what they can do...town subsidize a 50' chimney for the guy? Best I got. I understand both sides of conflict.

 

That would plug off in no time if he's making that much smoke.

 

It's a lousy situation all around. I hate to see a man get railroaded by Da Gub but I also have a soft spot for the neighbors. What do you do? Donate an entire winter's worth of dry wood so he can see the difference it makes? The following year he'll be back to burning junk again. Fine and penalize him until he ponies up the money for a new unit? If he doesn't have the money now, he sure won't have it after paying all those penalties. Maybe this news story will stir up enough regional sympathy and his neighbors will be blessed by a gofundme. The biggest thing against him is time, if the neighbors can hold out.