Winter Spare-the-Air controversy in the Bay Area: (San Francisco, Santa Clara: credit, homes)

[Charles22]

I received this email today from the BAAQMD (Bay area air quality management district). It's the first winter Spare-the-air alert for the season.

A Winter Spare the Air Alert has been called for tomorrow, Thursday, November 26, in the Bay Area.

The burning of wood and firelogs is banned both indoors and outdoors tomorrow, from midnight to midnight.

Air quality in the Bay Area is forecast to be unhealthy. The use of any and all wood-burning devices including fireplaces, wood stoves and inserts, pellet stoves and outdoor fire-pits is illegal. This wood-burning ban will be in effect for Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, southern Sonoma and southwestern Solano Counties.

Wood smoke is the largest source of wintertime air pollution in the Bay Area. When there is no wind to disperse pollutants from smoke, they become trapped close to the ground and can build up to unhealthy levels, making it difficult for people with asthma and other respiratory conditions to breathe.

For more information about the Wood Burning Rule, or to check before you burn, visit www.sparetheair.org or call 1-877-4-NO-BURN.

Thanksgiving weekend is the beginning of the winter wood-burning season. Almost EVERYBODY has planned to have a fire going in the hearth all day on Thanksgiving, if not the whole weekend.

I'm going to be visiting friends for turkey day, so my fireplace will be cold.

If you live in the Bay Area, are you going to have a fire in the fireplace despite the regulations against it? Or are you going to disappoint your guests by being a health-conscious rule-follower?

How do you feel about the govt. telling you how you can and can't heat your house?

[fizbin]

Originally Posted by Charles22

How do you feel about the govt. telling you how you can and can't heat your house?

In the case of Spare the Air days it doesn't bother me at all. And they have exemptions for folks who heat their homes with wood-burning stoves. Everyone else can turn of the heat if they need it.

[jbunniii]

I will be out of town, but if I were staying I would honor the ban. It is the law, after all. But if I hadn't read about it here I probably would not even have known about it. I never watch local TV and probably wouldn't/won't look at the internet on Thanksgiving either. I bet most people won't even be aware of the ban.

[bipolarpunk]

hmm.. seems politically motivated to me.. Again the Eco-Nazi's ruin a Holiday tradition..

[fizbin]

Originally Posted by bipolarpunk

hmm.. seems politically motivated to me.. Again the Eco-Nazi's ruin a Holiday tradition..

Funny - have some more wine!

[tstieber]

Hm, we probably only put on the fireplace a couple times a year, and most people have gas fireplaces anyway. I've never heard of "everyone" burning logs "all weekend long" like it's some sort of requirement to get in the Thanksgiving spirit. How about some warm applie pie, or Irish coffee to warm up? Besides, it's like sunny and 65 degrees out, and it seems kind of weird to be burning a fire all day. Just doesn't seem like a big deal to not have a fire going. We usually only put on the fireplace on a rainier, colder day when there is no Spare the Air.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

We are expecting the approach of a cold front tomorrow, there should be good mixing of the air mass with no inversion. This is absolute eco Fascist insanity.

[daepro]

For the good of the planet I will abide by the ban. In fact after reading this I signed up for email alerts regardiang Spare the Air Days. Why not?

[Ultrarunner]

I will abide by the ban... but I greatly resent the broad way it's implemented...

Many have invested dearly to install EPA certified, catalyst equipped stoves with the required city/county permits.

These stoves are certified to burn clean and this was brought up at the BAQMD hearing I attended... so these stoves are not a problem and they are not dirty polluters...

Modern EPA stoves are efficient and use a home grown renewable resource that often, at least in my case, would end up at the local landfill transfer station. BAAQMD staff have admitted as much to me off the record. I've been told they don't have the resorces to determine who is using a certified clean stove and who isn't... so we're all guilty.

Burning wood is Carbon Neutral... letting wood rot is wastfull and the fuel load increases fire danger especially in Urban/Wildland interface areas.

Each year, I loose one or two oaks when the Bay Area has a big windstorm and the Fire Inspectors insist downed trees be removed or chipped

I drag the fallen tree with my tractor, cut, split and stack the wood to season... I never sell my wood... I give it away to family, friends and neighbors each year for the Holidays and it was always much appreciated... at least it was for the last 25 years... now I'm looked at as a criminal by some...

After the Loma Prieta earthquake, somehow word got out that I had Firewood, total strangers were asking and I was giving it away because power was out for days..

The Government encourages the use of wood heat through tax credits... there was again a story in last week's newspaper about the Tax Credit and doing our part to lessen dependence on non-renewable resources and foreign oil.

Here is an excerpt:

With winter rapidly on its way, the government is asking you to think about cost-effective and environmentally responsible ways to heat your home. In fact, it is encouraging eco- and cost-conscious families to consider efficient wood stoves or inserts by offering a 30 percent tax credit, up to $1,500, for the purchase of a 75 percentefficient biomass-burning stove in 2009 and 2010.

Wood is America's Abundant Natural Resoruce and yet the BAAQMD prefers we not use it?

If the BAAQMD had any vision, they would encourage people to use the latest, up to date wood heat technology instead of issuing blanket bans... if it was truley about the environment and not politics... this would be the case.

[Charles22]

Thanksgiving morning: The air is so thick you can see it. Neighbors definitely using their fireplaces.