The Salt Lake County Board of Health has passed a regulation that prohibits outdoor and wood-burning fires on days that the State of Utah designates as mandatory or voluntary air action days. Health Regulation #35, Solid Fuel Burning, bans outdoor fires such as bonfires, charcoal grills, and patio pit fires, as well as the burning of coal, wood, or pellets in fireplaces and wood burning stoves, on days with already poor air quality. The restriction does not apply to homes that have a fireplace or stove as the only source of heat, and also does not apply during emergency situations such as power outages or furnace malfunctions.
The new regulation is designed to combat air pollution problems in the Salt Lake Valley. A single fireplace can emit as much pollution as 90 SUVs, and a traditional wood-burning stove can emit the same amount as 3,000 gas furnaces. Even more modern, EPA-certified stoves create 60 times more pollution than gas furnaces. The microscopic particles created by burning solid fuels can cause a number of health concerns, including respiratory and heart problems. Some types of pollution are fine enough that even staying indoors might not help; up to 70% of the wood smoke that leaves a chimney can re-enter nearby homes. The geography of the county exacerbates the problem with inversions, as cold winter air settles in the valley and traps pollution.
The State of Utah has created two distinct systems to alert residents to air quality problems. The first is a color-coded health alert, informing citizens when air quality is good, moderate, unhealthy for sensitive groups, and completely unhealthy with the colors green, yellow, orange, and red respectively. The second system consists of three “air action” notifications: unrestricted, voluntary restrictions, and mandatory restrictions. Previously, residents were encouraged but not required to reduce or eliminate wood burning on voluntary days. Health Regulation #35 now prohibits burning in Salt Lake County whenever the state declares either voluntary or mandatory no-burn days.
State law allows the health department to issue notices of violation and assess penalties of up to $299 per day for those who violate the restrictions. However, the department will likely only assign the highest fines to repeat offenders, and fines for burning on voluntary days will not be assessed at all until January of 2016. “During this first year, the Health Department will focus on educating residents about the regulation and the health issues associated with solid fuel burning,” said Gary Edwards, Salt Lake County Health Department executive director.
The health department is asking the public to report burning on restricted days so that staff can educate noncompliant residents before the fines go into effect. Reports may be filed online or by calling 385-468-8888. For more information about the new rules, visit the Salt Lake County Health Department website.
This last year we had some hazy days that everyone wondered about where it was coming from. There was a report on the TV weather showing that the haze was due to fires in Siberia. It showed the natural currents of air from Siberia coming across the oceans and into our valley. Often we as home owners who seldom use our fire burning devices are blamed for pollution caused by industry, coal burning power plants, fires from out of state or even other nations. The truth of the matter is most of not only wood or coal burning particulate matter in our air is not coming from our fireplaces, but coming from refinery's, power plants, or industries that the state has deemed to be exempt from red burning days like the rest of us. It is also true that such particulate matter is a minor part of the pollutants in the air, most of what we see and breath are the sulfides and other pollutants that do not come from our fireplaces or even our cars.
ReplyDelete