Alameda County Supervisor Asked This Blogger to Present on Low Emission Wood Burning Inserts

The following is from the Bay Area Air Quality management District:

Thank you for your January 10, 2012 inquiry to Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley. Supervisor Miley is a member of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District's (Air District) Board of Directors and has referred your inquiry to us for response. As an agency responsible for protecting public health of Bay Area residents, I would like to respond by providing some background on the Air District's Winter Spare the Air Campaign and our regulation.

The wood burning regulation (Regulation 6, Rule 3) was adopted in July 2008 to redcuce the harmful emissions from wood smoke in an effort to further protect public health. During the winter months November 1st through the end of February, this regulation prohibits the burning of solid fuels in a fireplace or other wood burning device whenever the Air District forecasts air quality to be unhealthy, and determines there is a significant public health risk.

The fine particulate pollution (PM2.5) emitted from wood burning devices can cause serious respiratory problems, decreased long function, aggravated asthma, nose and throat irritation, irregular heart beats, and premature death in people with heart and lung disease - particularly on the cold, still winter nights when Winter Spare the Air Alerts are typically declared. These weather conditions trap winter smoke air pollution close to the ground and cause pollution levels to rise to unhealthy levels.

The Bay Area currently fails to meet the federal standard for PM2.5 with serious and costly health consequences for many of our residents. Therefore as the local government agency responsible for keeping the air clean for all Bay Area residents, it is the responsibility of the Air District to ensure that all members of our community - for example, children and the elderly, and those with respiratory ailments such as asthma - are protected from the adverse health effects caused by wood smoke.

The Air District appreciates that you have upgraded your wood burning device to a cleaner burning Environmental Protection Agency ((EPA) certified device and does support cleaner burning solid fuel technology. This is the reason that the only type of devices allowed to be sold and installed in the Bay Area are EPA-certified devices and pellet fueled devices. While EPA-certified devices and pellet stoves are designed to pollute less than open hearth fireplaces or uncertified wood stoves, they still emit fine particulate matter which increases air pollution on days with already unhealthy air quality. Particulate emissions from even these EPA-certified devices are at least ten times higher than natural gas fueled devices and can also generate excessive emissions if not installed or operated properly. Whenever the Air District forecasts unhealthy air pollution levels, it is critical that all wood burning is limited in order to meet the national PM standards, thereby preventing negative impacts on the residents of the Bay Area.

Regarding the emission rate and efficiency of your device, all wood stoves are certified on the federal level by the EPA under the New Source performance Standard for New Residential Wood Heaters under the Clean Air Act. An EPA-certified wood stove or wood heating appliance is indepedently tested by an EPA laboratory. The list of certified devices and the information on that list are maintained by EPA and not the Air District.

Miley invited me to present my thoughts to the district.

The above response was provided by Paul Hibser, Supervising Air Quality Specialist with BAAQMD.

My wood burning insert is manufactured By Home and Hearth Technologies, my insert model is 3100i ACT. The emission rate for my insert is 1.26 grams an hour, the EPA allowable standard rate for emission is 7.5 grams an hour.

Paul Hibser did not address my question to install a catalytic after burner to clean up my emission rate from 1.26 grams an hour to zero grams an hour. By reducing my emission rate to zero grams an hour, would the BAAQMD allow me to burn on spare the air days? With out that, there is no incentive for me to burn clean on days that are not Spare the Air days.

Wood is a renewable source of energy, the technology today for burning wood to heat the home is a clean energy science.