Posted on 07/09/2008 4:53:38 PM PDT by SmithL
Wood fires in fireplaces and stoves in the Bay Area will be banned on bad air nights in winter to protect public health from soot, the region's air pollution board ruled today.
Adopting its first rule to regulate indoor wood burning, the nine-county Bay Area Air Quality Management District Board said that even EPA-approved wood burning stoves cannot legally burn on Spare the Air nights. Violators will get written warning for their first offense, and can be issued $100 tickets for repeat offenses.
The air board also adopted year-round visibility limits on chimney smoke in an effort to stop people from burning wet wood, wooden pallets, or trash, which can spew thick smoke.
The Bay Area follows in the footsteps of air pollution districts in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, which also restricted wood burning on bad air nights in winter when smoke is trapped near the ground.
Soot
Nazis
S
O
B
s
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District — the state’s first regional agency dealing with air pollution - was created by the California Legislature in 1955.
The District’s jurisdiction encompasses all of seven counties - Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Napa, and portions of two others - southwestern Solano and southern Sonoma.
This was done in Fairbanks and it happens that bad air and 40 below often coincide, so when you really need your wood stove you are obligated to freeze.
Around here, the envro-Nazi’s are called the SCAQMD. A collection of unelected, unaccountable, faceless bureaucrats, they are bent on controlling our daily lives and expanding their power whenever possible. We need to ID the specific politicians appointing these little would-be dictators and hold them accountable for everything these horse’s asses do.
You know what bud, I’m as sick as you are about these busy body laws coming down the pike these days.
The legislation has been on the books since 1955 that established these districts to fight air pollution.
I am not certain of the appointment process but the board in this area is predominantly democrat. They recently had proposed taxes on over 2500 local businesses that would essentially charge them for polluting and use that money to further their efforts.
Is it legal? I guess in one sense, Yes.
Is it reasonable? To those affected by air contaminants, Yes.
Is it fair? I’ll leave that one alone.
Up until recently, the local district had encouraged that folks install EPA stoves thru a wood rebate program. That program has now been terminated.
Will I burn wood and run the risk of penalties? probably Yes. This latest round of regs is aimed at spare the air days but it also includes language that lets them go after you anytime they see anything coming out of your chimney they don’t like.
At what point is the public’s interest served and at what point is a man’s home no longer his castle? It will be interesting how this plays out. It really is a part of the whole global warming and mis aimed at control, nothing really new here.
California lost its way a long time ago, smoke or no smoke impeding its view.
to protect public health
for the common good
I think that day is already way behind us. :-(
These commissions are basically jobs for Democrats.
California could do away with every single commission, and somehow this state would pull through.
Frankly, I’m all for it.
The Los Angeles area AQMD is another bogus organization. (Air Quality Management District)
It created diamond lanes to clear the air. And now we have 25% of the freeway blocked to regular access, while three lanes are filled with cars with engines running and going nowhere. Most diamond lanes are no where near full. It’s all a big racket.
Is that clearing the air?
Expland the damned freeways and the air will be considerably better the first day folks get home early.
damn, I guess the moat project can slip down the to do list then. ;-)
I certainly hope no one tells them that every single human being in California exhales carbon dioxide with every breath.
Time for a gate over the driveway.
Normal?
Tom Bates, Gavin Newsom, & Chris Daly.
And those are just the well-known petty-tyrants.
Go green. No moat--save water. ;-)
That description works for many groups, not just the SCAQMD.
Thus is exposed the real reason for the existence of these regulatory bodies.
It does. And this cancer has now spread to all three levels of government. Local governments have discovered there is little downside to lying and cheating, just like the big boys do it in Sacramento and Washington.
Most of them deserve to be swinging from lamp posts...
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