March 27, 2009
LETTER EMAILED TO ALL 201 MINNESOTA STATE LEGISLATORS
67 SENATE MEMBERS, 134 HOUSE MEMBERS

Can you please help my wife, myself, and thousands of people like us, who are facing an emerging health issue; one that was almost non-existant a decade ago, but because of volatile energy prices has become an issue which is literally and figuratively spreading like wildfire throughout Minnesota neighborhoods right now.

I read with great interest the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency report given to the Minnesota Legislature in January 2009 called AIR QUALITY IN MINNESOTA EMERGING TRENDS, 2009 REPORT TO THE LEGISLATURE. The summation of the 20 page report points out concerns relating to the health and environmental effects of exposure to multiple pollutants from two major areas 1) Transportation sources, and 2) Residential wood burning. Specifically, as mentioned numerous times in the report, OUTDOOR WOOD BOILERS (OWB). These devices are unlike ANY other form of wood burning. OWB's are like a wood stove on steroids, in a class by themselves because of the disproportionately ENORMOUS volume of smoke they emit. Most OWB's burn 24/7, every day of the year, as a method of heating water for home use. Because of a loophole in EPA regulations, OWB's were not included with INDOOR wood stoves and fireplaces in air quality standards written in the 1990's. Around this time, there were only a few hundred in existence; it is estimated by next year there could be 500,000 installed in cold weather states, in more and more high density residential neighborhoods.
From the forward to the conclusion, the MPCA report discusses issues caused by wood burning, devoting a page to OWB's and their effects. From the MPCA report, "As other traditional heating methods such as electricity, natural gas, and fuel oil have substantially increased in price, more Minnesotans have begun installing outdoor wood boilers. Many of these boilers cause a disproportionate amount of air emissions and generate a disproportionate level of complaints relative to their numbers due to their often short stacks and relative inefficiency which can create dense smoke." The report continues. "Residential wood burning contributed 12 percent of statewide benzene emissions, 19 percent of direct emissions from particles and 39 percent of polycyclic hydrocarbon emissions. In fact, wood smoke contains many of the same chemicals as tobacco smoke."
THIS IS WHAT IS HAPPENING TO US IN OUR MINNESOTA NEIGHBORHOOD!

For several years now, we are LIVING what the MPCA report reveals. Along with ourselves, a half dozen surrounding properties, representing at least 20 people and 15 acres of property, complained about the extreme quantity of smoke and odor on our properties created on a regular basis, we were told by the City officials of Oak Grove ours was an "isolated complaint", one that is not a widespread problem, in their view. Add to that a lack of direction from County and State officials on this issue, and little can be done. We were told "since OWB's are legal, there is little we can do."

My wife suffers from asthma. Day after day smoke can fill the interior of our home on a moment's notice when our windows are open, heavy enough to trigger asthma attacks in my wife and headaches in me. Unlike most Minnesotans, we dread the thought of Spring, as we can't open our windows during warm weather. We are forced to keep all windows closed all the time. The surrounding neighbors have problems ranging from COPD to Minears' Disease and emphysema. A clear majority of those living adjacent to the OWB point to the outdoor wood boiler as aggravating their health problems for the last several years. One of our neighbors took the batteries out of his carbon monoxide detectors to silence them because the smoke from the OWB regularly set them off(!)

Night after night our entire neighborhood will fill up with smoke. Winter or summer, on windless nights we are blanketed in a thick gray smog for thousands of feet. It's like something you'd see in Los Angeles or other major city, not an outer ring Minnesota suburb. We and our neighbors on several surrounding blocks live with greatly degraded quality of life issues EVERY DAY OF OUR LIVES, caused directly by a single OWB. It has become bad enough we have put together a web site with videos and descriptions of the problem we are facing.

Please visit http://www.freeinside.net and see what an OWB in a residential neighborhood REALLY looks like. It's not what the manufacturers or salespeople want everyone to see, that's for sure. The truth is literally choking.

We have lost our right to clean, breathable air on our own property. Our local government will not help us. The County says they are powerless. Everyone says they follow rules from "those above", namely at the State level. PLEASE HELP US by voting for stricter regulation of OUTDOOR WOOD BOILERS if and when the legislation comes before you. And PLEASE don't "grandfather in" existing ones. The older they are, the greater amount of harmful pollutants they emit. You will be helping not just us, but thousands of Minnesotans undoubtedly affected by outdoor wood boilers.
Respectfully,


Google "outdoor wood boiler complaints" or on Google News and you'll find news stories, blogs, and web sites with experiences of people who are forced to live next to OWB's.
A recent State of Washington Dept. of Ecology study came to similar conclusions as the MPCA studies. "Tests found that the average fine particle emissions (a particularly harmful pollutant) from one OWB are equivalent to the emissions from 22 EPA certified wood stoves, 205 oil furnaces, or as many as 8,000 natural gas furnaces. One OWB can emit as much fine particle matter as four heavy duty diesel trucks on a grams per hour basis. The smallest OWB is likely to have an emission rate of 8.5 pounds of chemical soot ejected from the stack in a 24 hour period, or almost one and one-half tons of particulate matter every year. Although older style indoor wood stoves emit more than new certified stoves, they are still several times less polluting than OWBs. Due to the poor combustion conditions, it is also probable that OWBs emit proportionately more benzene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, formaldehyde and other toxic partial combustion products which have been linked to asthma, heart attacks and cancer."
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/air/AOP_Permits/Boiler/Outdoor_Boilers_home.html
The installation of new outdoor wood boilers has been stopped in Washington State by their Legislature, because of the dangers they create to those living around them.