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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — As the federal government moves forward with new rules for wood burning stoves, Utah state officials are grappling with how to locally regulate stoves that contribute to polluted winter air in the northern part of the state.
The state recently retreated from a proposed wintertime ban on all wood burning along the Wasatch Front after a chorus of residents spoke out against the plan at a series of community meetings this year. The Utah Division of Air Quality is reviewing all the public feedback and assessing what recommendations it will make later this year, agency spokeswoman Donna Kemp Spangler said.
But a Utah lawmaker doesn't want to wait for that recommendation and has introduced a bill that would create a new system in the state that would allow people with wood stoves certified by the Environmental Protection Agency to burn on moderately bad, or yellow, air days. The proposal from Utah Rep. Brad Dee, R-Ogden, would still ban all wood burning on bad air days and ban burning by non-EPA certified stoves on the moderate days.
The bill is supported by wood burners but strongly opposed by clean air advocates.
John Mortensen, chairman of a coalition called Utahns for Responsible Burning, argues that people who have invested $1,000-$5,000 to install the EPA-certified wood stoves should be rewarded and not punished.
The coalition agrees that nobody should be allowed to burn on the worst air quality days, but point out that some residents in the state rely on wood stoves to heat their homes to save money.
"We feel like we should do our part, but not be totally banned," said Mortensen, whose group has pushed back against efforts to vilify wood stove burners for the region's air quality issues,
Tim Wagner and Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment is opposed to the bill. He said changing the current system would prevent the Division of Air Quality from proactively halting burning when they foresee bad air days coming.
State officials estimate wood burning stoves make up a relatively small part of the winter air pollution, but Wanger argues wood burning is a bigger problem than most people realize.
"Smoke is smoke and it's very toxic to the lungs," Wagner said.
Erin Mendenhall policy director of Breathe Utah and a member of the Utah Air Quality Board, is irked that Dee is trying to intervene legislation into a process that is being handled adequately by the state and the air quality board.
In the Salt Lake City metro area, air quality is a hot button issue that spurs rallies, legislation and heated debates.
Northern Utah's urban corridor sometimes has the nation's worst air during the winter, caused by weather and geography. In winter, cold, stagnant air often settles in the bowl-shaped mountain basins, trapping tailpipe and other emissions that have no way of escaping.
Utah ranks in the middle of the pack nationally for fine particle emissions from residential wood burning, according to figures from 2011, the latest year for which the EPA has statistics. Utah is 29th for per capita emissions and 31st for total emissions.
As the state and residents jockey over regulations, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has adopted new rules to significantly limit the pollution from newly manufactured residential wood heaters.
Those new rules won't have much of an impact on Utah in the short term because most stoves used here already meet the standards, Mortensen said. "We were fearing tougher restrictions."
Gov. Gary Herbert has pointed to wood burning stoves as part of the problem, signing into law in 2014 a measure that included $500,000 to help people who are reliant on them for household heat make the transition to natural gas or other cleaner heat sources.
So far, only five people have taken the state up on the offer, said Joel Karmazyn, an environmental scientist with the Division of Air Quality. Several others are in line to get new heating appliances, he said.
The state has spent $53,000 so far, with another $62,000 allocated for the people in line. Most of the people who have signed up live in rural areas, Karmazyn said.
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