| Mar. 7, 2008 Southland air
quality officials today approved a “Healthy Hearths” initiative to reduce
harmful fine particulate pollution from fireplaces and wood stoves through a
regulation, incentive program and public outreach effort.
“Wood smoke from fireplaces and wood stoves causes more than four times
as much fine particulate pollution as all the power plants in our region,”
said William Burke, Ed.D., AQMD’s Governing Board Chairman. “It is time for
residents to play a greater role in protecting their families’ and
communities’ health by helping to reduce wood smoke pollution.”
Wood stoves and other wood-burning devices are used in an estimated 1.4
million households in the Southland. They emit an average of 6 tons per day
of PM2.5 emissions – more than four times the 1.4 tons per day of PM2.5
emitted by all of the power plants in the four-county region. During
winter, PM2.5 emissions from fireplaces and other wood-burning appliances
are about 13 tons per day. PM2.5 pollution is associated with a wide range
of adverse health impacts including an increase in premature deaths,
particularly among those with heart and lung disease. The Southland has the
highest PM2.5 levels in the nation.
More than a dozen air districts in Central and Northern California as
well as many cities and regions across the West already have wood burning
programs in effect. State law requires AQMD to adopt a wood-burning measure
since it has been demonstrated as a feasible PM2.5 reduction measure by
other air districts.
AQMD’s Healthy Hearths initiative, identified by a colorful logo,
includes three major components:
- AQMD’s Rule 445 – Wood Burning Devices – adopted today, is the first
regulation in Southern California to reduce pollution from wood-burning
fireplaces and other devices through requirements for new construction, a
potential future curtailment of burning in specified areas when poor air
quality is forecast, and other measures;
-
A $500,000 pilot incentive
program, approved today, to encourage residents to convert existing
wood-burning fireplaces to clean-burning gas logs. The program, offering
an incentive of $100 to $150 per gas log set, will be launched this fall;
and
-
A public outreach campaign
prior to 2011 informing residents of the health effects of wood smoke and
days when air pollution levels are forecast to be unhealthy.
AQMD’s Rule 445 includes the following provisions:
- Beginning March 9, 2009, only fireplaces fueled by gas (such as gas
logs) may be installed in a new residential or commercial building in the
Southland. Permanently installed indoor or outdoor wood-burning
fireplaces or stoves are not permitted after this date in new
construction;
-
Beginning September 8, 2008, only
the cleanest-burning wood stoves and heaters, and dedicated gas heaters,
may be sold in the Southland and permanently installed in existing homes
and buildings. These include U.S. EPA Phase II-certified fireplace
inserts or stoves; pellet-fueled heaters; masonry heaters or gas heating
units such as gas inserts or gas logs;
-
Effective immediately,
commercial wood sellers in the four-county region may only sell seasoned
wood (with less than 20 percent moisture content) from July 1 through
February each year;
-
Effective immediately,
residents cannot burn trash or other items not intended to be used as fuel
in a fireplace or wood stove; and
-
Beginning on Nov. 1, 2011,
AQMD will issue mandatory wood-burning curtailments from November through
February in specific areas on days when PM2.5 levels are forecast to reach
unhealthy levels. The curtailments would start in 2011 only if needed to
achieve federal air quality goals. To learn if a mandatory curtailment is
in effect, residents can call a recorded message, check AQMD’s website or
sign up for electronic e-mail notices. AQMD will also distribute
curtailment notifications to news media.
The rule includes several exemptions, including cook stoves such as
wood-burning stoves and ovens used in restaurants, and historical
buildings. Properties located 3,000 feet above sea level, low-income
households or those without natural gas access are exempt from curtailment
requirements. Campfires, beach bonfires and ceremonial burning are also
exempt from future mandatory curtailment.
The Healthy Hearths program implements a control measure in the 2007 Air
Quality Management Plan and is an important component of AQMD’s overall
effort to meet a 2014 deadline for achieving the federal PM2.5 health-based
standard.
The California Air Resources Board estimates that PM2.5 pollution from
all sources in the Southland result in approximately 5,000 premature deaths
per year. AQMD’s new Healthy Hearths program is expected to reduce
approximately one ton per day of PM2.5 emissions by 2014.
AQMD is the air pollution control agency for Orange County and major
portions of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
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