Free Republic

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District is not just another government agency with an unwieldy title and a lot of directors (22, at last count). It is the state-appointed body that regulates the "stationary sources of air pollution in the nine counties that surround San Francisco Bay." In the winter months, that means it's the fireplace police. When meteorologists determine that cold, still conditions will trap particulate-filled wood smoke close to the ground, the agency declares a "no burn" day, meaning you're forbidden from burning your firewood in your fireplace in the house you own. Put another way: On...

Another holiday. Another sweep of smoke scofflaws. Bay Area air pollution inspectors found 47 homes where wood fires were on Christmas Day during a Spare the Air alert when cold, unhealthy air was forecast. The tally was more than double the 22 violators detected on Thanksgiving Day when the Bay Area Air Quality Management District also called a Spare the Air alert. Violators get written warnings for a first offense and $400 fines for a second offense. While critics have bashed the air district for intruding on a holiday burning tradition, a spokesman for the agency on Monday defended the...

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- You can celebrate Christmas but you won't be able to burn the Yule Log on Friday in the Bay Area. That's because the Bay Area Air Quality Management District is prohibiting the burning of wood on Christmas Day. Friday will be the season's third winter Spare the Air day. Officials are blaming what they call "stagnant weather conditions. “Air quality is unfortunately forecast to be unhealthy on Christmas Day, and the Air District is taking steps to protect public health by issuing a Winter Spare the Alert,” said Jack Broadbent, executive officer of the Air District...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Let's hope you weren't planning to cook that turkey over an open fire. Air quality officials have called a Spare the Air alert for Thanksgiving, meaning the burning of wood and manufactured fire logs is banned both indoors and outdoors from midnight tonight until midnight Thursday. The use of any wood-burning device, including fireplaces, wood stoves, pellet stoves and outdoor fire pits, is illegal during that period, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District said. The wood-burning ban covers Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, southern Sonoma and southwestern Solano counties.

(11-19) 16:21 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- The fireplace police descended on the Bay Area on Wednesday. For the first time ever, residential fires are illegal under a new law, passed in July, that bans home burning on winter season Spare the Air days. The first such ban took effect at noon. Seventy inspectors from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District planned to spend the day and evening patrolling residential neighborhoods, looking for telltale chimney wisps. Violators will get warnings by mail. Repeat offenders face fines of as much as $2,000. The fireplace police say they are determined to keep...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Bay Area air quality officials issued the first Spare the Air alert of the winter season today, making it illegal to burn wood, pellets or manufactured fire logs around the region. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District passed a regulation in July banning wood and fire log burning on winter days when weather conditions could lead to poor air quality.

Bay Area residents who violate a new ban on burning wood fires on chilly Spare the Air nights could face some of the toughest fines in California — hundreds or even thousands of dollars per violation.Effective today with the start of the burn season, the new Bay Area rule bars people from burning wood fires in fireplaces and wood stoves on bad air nights. The rule also bars excessive smoke from indoors fires any time of year.Offenders — to be identified largely by neighbors phoning in complaints — will get written warnings for the first offense. But subsequent violations can...

San Francisco, CA (AP) -- Air quality regulators are clamping down on wood burning stoves and fireplaces between November and February in the Bay area. Regulators say during the cooler months, wood burning in households produces one-third of the total fine particulate matter in the air. Regulators expect 15 to 20 spare the air days this winter. Violators face fines up to $1,000 a day.

Mention air pollution, and what comes to mind? Factories. Oil refineries. Auto tailpipes. Now Bay Area smog regulators are trying to crack down on another source that they say is just as significant, even if beloved: home fireplaces. Citing growing medical research that soot causes more severe health problems than was previously realized, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District is proposing a ban on all wood burning in fireplaces and wood stoves in the nine Bay Area counties during winter "Spare the Air" nights. --snip-- If approved, fireplace police would enforce the rules, and neighbors would be encouraged to...

The Bay Area's recent six days of free public transit during hot, smoggy summer commutes were popular, but whether the Spare the Air program justified its hefty price tag is up for debate. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the region's transit planning and funding agency, spent about $13 million to compensate transit agencies for lost fare revenue during those six days in June and July. Yet there is no clear way to measure whether the increase in transit ridership resulted in less air pollution. One goal of the program -- getting more people to ride public transit -- clearly worked. Every...