Point Reyes Light - December 11, 2003

New woodstove law being called overkill

By Andrew Pridgen

Belated criticism has begun to build against the one-size-fits-all ban on old woodstoves approved by county supervisors on Oct. 28.

West Marin houses, as well as those in other unincorporated parts of the county, must now replace any wood-burning stoves built before 1990 with modern, US Environmental Protection Agency-approved stoves.

Under the new ordinance, the woodstoves must be replaced whenever a house is upgraded and – in any case – no later than by 2008. The ordinance expands EPA guidelines that have been in effect since 1988.

As the Bay Area Air Quality Management District explained last month, "Winter meteorology plays a role in air pollution. Unlike summer smog that peaks in the late afternoon, wintertime pollution is highest at night and in the early morning hours. On winter evenings, cold air sinks close to the ground beneath a layer of warmer air, forming a shallow inversion.

Wind is the issue

"When there is no wind to dissipate pollutants, they become trapped under this inversion layer, building up to unhealthy levels [emphasis added]."

In the San Geronimo Valley, where a ring of hills eliminates most wind, the problem of woodstove smoke accumulating is particularly bad. However, in towns on the coast and in most of the county, no such problem exists.

On Point Reyes and in Dillon Beach, Tomales, Chileno Valley, Marshall, Point Reyes Station, Bolinas, Stinson Beach, and Muir Beach, the prevailing problem is too much wind, not too little. In these parts of West Marin, winter winds are often high enough to topple trees, rip shingles off roofs, cause wave damage to oceanfront homes, and break boats loose from their moorings.

Yet households in these areas will also be required to replace their woodstoves within five years at an average cost of $1,500, using county estimates. In short, coastal residents will have to spend more than $1.5 million with no evidence this will solve any problems.

(For an unspecified period, the county is reimbursing homeowners $250 for every woodstove replaced.)

Commenting on Marin’s going beyond EPA guidelines to limit woodsmoke, EPA spokesman John Dupree told The Light on Monday that current EPA guidelines "are sufficient for California as well as parts of the country that have had much more severe pollution from woodstoves."

Although old woodstoves can generate carbon monoxide, the EPA doubts that they are the worst polluters and has still to determine whether they are nearly as harmful as other commonly used heating with different fuels.

"We regulate woodstoves but not open hearth fireplaces or outdoor woodboilers, the worst source of pollution," said Dupree. "Woodboilers are used mostly in the northeast. They’re big burners located outside the house. People put wood in them and just let them burn all winter. There’s no regulations on them. They create a lot of pollution. A blind man could tell you they cause a health problem."

Support but no evidence

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District staff, on the other hand intuitively support Marin’s new anti-smoke ordinance although they have never conducted a study to see if it’s needed countywide.

"Even if it’s just one old stove near the coast, the pollution has to blow somewhere," said Luna Salaver, a spokeswoman for the district.

Salaver speculated that woodstove owners may think their smoke is not causing a problem in their neighborhoods, but "the small particle pollution remains airborne and may cause a problem in someone else’s neighborhood."

Marin air pollution low

At least in Marin County, however, this does not appear to be happening. Salaver admitted the county’s only air-quality monitoring station, which is located in San Rafael, shows that air pollution (which would include any smoke from the coast) is among the lowest in the San Francisco Bay Area.

"It’s not high," Salaver acknowledged, "but if we had a monitoring station in the [San Geronimo] Valley, it may exceed federal standards."

Woodfires have value

Salaver added her district could install a temporary monitoring station in West Marin "if there’s a request."

Mark Dowie of Inverness suspects the county’s one-size-fits-all woodsmoke ordinance may be overkill. "Before outlawing woodstoves," he wrote The Light last week, "why not do a complete cost-benefit analysis that weighs the economic and ecological costs of having propane tanks and gas delivered by diesel trucks to every home in the watershed?

"I don’t know what the outcome would be, but it seems only fair to conduct such a study before forcing people who forage wood for heat to switch to Dick Cheney’s favorite energy source."

Similarly Michael Stocker of Forest Knolls last year wrote, "I come from a long line of folks who have kept warm by the fire. In fact learning to heat ourselves by burning wood has been considered one of the more clever things that we did...

"I surmise that there are far more healthful ways of keeping warm than burning fossil fuels at some remote location or damming the rivers to generate an electrical source of heat...Perhaps harnessing the atom for heat is a cleaner way to keep the chill of winter from my home."

Woodstove law supported

The most support for the woodstove ban has come not surprisingly from some residents of the San Geronimo Valley. "Marin County has taken a step towards reducing massive amounts of carbon dioxide emissions, the suspected leading culprit in global warming," wrote Fred Mundy, also of Forest Knolls.

Other Valley residents have said woodsmoke in their community has aggravated respiratory problems and that they welcome the new ordinance.

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