SALT LAKE CITY — They sat on the floor, lined the walls of the state agency's board room and spilled out into the hallway during a Thursday night hearing on a proposed rule that would ban residential wood burning during the inversion season.

Opponents to the proposal showed up in force in an attempt to douse any efforts by the state to prohibit wood burning all together.

"I think we are small potatoes when it comes to pollution from wood stoves," said Steve Roper, citing idling cars and locomotives, and toxic emissions from industry.

Proponents, however, urged consideration of the wood burning ban.

"Someone’s right to have a wood burning fire in their home should not surpass my right to have clean air in my home," said Mark Jensen.

Jensen was joined by advocacy groups like Utah Moms for Clean Air and Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment at the packed public hearing in the board room at the Utah Department of Environmental Quality.

"I am in support of a wood burning ban," said Tina Escobar Taft from Utah Moms for Clean Air. The pregnant woman said her right to deliver a healthy child should not be jeopardized by someone who feels it is their "right" to burn wood.

The room, however, was heavily packed with dozens of opponents to the ban, which was described by one man as a "diabolical" overreach by government.

"I oppose the ban," Bryson Jack told air quality officials. "I don’t have the right to tell my neighbor at any point at any time that they aren't allowed to burn wood to stay warm. You (the state) should not be allowed to do that either, because you represent me."

For the last several years, clean air advocacy groups have made a strong push to the Utah Air Quality Board asking for tougher regulations on wood smoke.

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Tooele County hosts angry crowd at first wood burning ban hearing

The first of seven public hearings to measure the appetite for a seasonal, residential wood-burning ban was attended by close to 200 people in Tooele County clearly fired up over any effort by the state to "regulate" their lives.

“The research is overwhelmingly clear: Wood fires have no place in a city that struggles with air pollution,” says Matt Pacenza, executive director of HEAL Utah. "Eliminating wood burning in the winter is a key tool to reduce Salt Lake’s deadly smog,” says Pacenza. “But so is getting more people out of their cars and cracking down on industrial pollution and much more. Fighting dirty air isn’t an ‘either/or’ proposition. It’s all of the above.”

The Salt Lake City hearing was the second in a series of seven public comment events that are slated to be held throughout January on the proposed ban, which if endorsed by the board could begin Nov. 1 and would last through March 15. Impacted counties include all of Utah, Salt Lake and Davis counties and portions of Tooele, Box Elder, Weber counties and Cache Valley.

Members of the Utah Air Quality Board approved sending the proposed rule out for comment until Feb. 9. In addition to submitting comments of any of the scheduled hearings, comments may be emailed to mberger@utah.gov or mail them to public comment, Division of Air Quality, P.O. Box 144820, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84114-4820.

The next hearing is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Tuesday in Brigham City at in Conference Room B of the Bear River Health Department, 991 S. 800 West. Weber County's hearing is also Tuesday at 5 p.m. at the Weber-Morgan Health Department.

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert asked for consideration of a seasonal wood burning ban in his State of the State address in January of 2014, stressing more needs to be done on an individual level to reduce harmful levels of air pollutants.

The EPA says that numerous scientific studies report that there are serious adverse health effects from breathing smoke emitted by residential and wood combustion. The agency warns that even the most modern wood burning devices can produce smoke if they are operated incorrectly.

Wood smoke is considered particularly hazardous because its heavy, localized concentrations and increased risk of exposure, according to the EPA.

When people are not at work, they typically spend 60 to 70 percent of that time in their home. If they heat their home with wood, they are potentially exposed to fine particulate pollution. In addition to the smoke that is released inside the home, studies show that an estimated 70 percent of smoke from chimneys can actually re-enter the home and neighborhood dwellings.

In Salt Lake County, emissions from vehicles make up more than 50 percent of the PM2.5 emissions, but air quality regulators believe going after wood smoke will have a measurable impact as well.

Wood smoke, according to division estimates, comprises 4 percent of the inventory and may even be more given what regulators suspect is routine violation of mandatory "no burn" days.

A coalition made up of residents and the hearth industry opposed to the ban has organized, with Utahns for Responsible Burning helping to pack Wednesday's hearing in Tooele County and making a robust showing in Salt Lake City. The coalition argues that at the very least, EPA-certified wood stoves should be exempt from any ban imposed under "voluntary" conditions.

"If you have never been cold in your own home you will not understand the impact of this ban on families," said Terry Mills. "A complete ban is not the answer."

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