December 4, 2008
We receive an e-mail from Matt Entenza of Minnesota 20/20
Thanks very much for your compelling message. I appreciate that you took the time to give me your perspective on this problem.

I am forwarding your message to several others working with environmental agencies to alert them as well. The only proper option is state regulation, so I would suggest that you do talk with your state officials, if you’ve not done that previously.

Thanks again for your very thoughtful message.

Matt



Sent: Monday, December 01, 2008 12:25 AM
To: Matt Entenza
Subject: Outdoor wood boilers cause of great concern for our health

Dear Matt,

We are writing to bring attention to our problem that many others across Minnesota and the US are dealing with as well.

My husband and I live in Oak Grove, a City of 8,000, about 40 minutes north of Minneapolis, MN. For over two years, our residential neighborhood has been experiencing serious air quality issues regarding a product known as an OUTDOOR WOOD BOILER or HYDRONIC HEATER, which is located on an adjoining property. OWB's, as they are called, have recently become a popular "alternative" energy device in residential homes. They burn large quantities of wood to produce heated water for residential use. They are advertised as "safe" for the homeowner because the combustion does not take place within the owner's dwelling. An OWB look like a small garden shed, and has a giant combustion chamber, large enough to be filled with logs 6 feet long. Unlike fireplaces or stoves, OWB's are designed to COMBUST CONTINUOUSLY. Once they are lit, they burn all the time, 24/7, year round. (I know this isn't very exciting reading but please bear with me.)

THE ISSUE:
An outdoor wood boiler emits ENORMOUS volumes of smoke into our neighborhood. EPA studies say they emit the same amount of smoke in one hour as 10 EPA certified wood stoves, and up to 8,000 gas furnaces!! In one year, an OWB releases an avg. of 3,080 POUNDS of soot, called "particulate matter", containing carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, sulphur and nitrogen oxides, dioxins, and other cancer causing chemicals. Also, because of the large door, many OWB owners burn garbage, tires, treated lumber, or other household items, against the law. We are certain our neighbor has burned plastic many times.

Visually, the smoke looks a lot like the smoke that belches out of an old fashioned train locomotive. Think Petticoat Junction or Wild Wild West and you get the idea. Unfortunately, unlike a train, it never leaves, it just sits there and smokes constantly, out of an unfiltered smoke stack about 6 feet off the ground. The locomotive sized stream of smoke is often carried along the ground with the wind and fills neighboring properties, including ours. Often it will catch us off guard and if our windows are open, our house will fill with smoke in seconds.

Smoke clouds from an OWB be 30 or more feet high and stretch for hundreds of yards in every direction. Some days it looks like a house is on fire, other days our entire back yard will turn gray or purple with thick streams of smoke. One night we woke up and thought our house was on fire because we left a window open. We were seconds from calling 911, until we realized the source was 400 feet away from us. On windless days our house is OFTEN blanketed in a stagnant cloud of carbon monoxide for up to 24 hours. This has happened 3 times in the past 2 weeks alone and is literally thick enough to make you choke if you are outside for more than a couple minutes. Some days we are literally TRAPPED IN OUR OWN HOUSE. I have asthma, and the smoke has triggered many many asthma attacks for me, severe headaches for my husband.

We live 400 feet from the device, and 9 other neighbors live 150-600 feet away from the same boiler. Speaking with those neighbors, we have discovered they too find their health problems are aggravated by the huge volumes of smoke. Neighbors with asthma, COPD, vertigo, Minear's disease and emphysema have all signed written complaints and sent them to the Oak Grove, MN City Administration, stating the wood smoke is heavy enough they believe it sincerely aggravates their symptoms. The gentlemen with Minear's believes the wood boiler may have played some part in the cause of his disease. (2 carbon monoxide alarms keep going off in his house- he eventually unplugged them out of frustration. Where do you go when the CO detectors INSIDE your house go off because of smoke OUTSIDE the house?)

WHY WE NEED YOUR HELP!:
We have learned OWB's became popular AFTER the last major EPA revision of emissions from wood burning appliances, and this loophole makes them exempt from ANY, repeat ANY regulation. Because the Feds are years from updating emissions standards to include OWB's, they leave it up to states. Washington and New York have banned or severely restricted their use. Former Atty. Gen. Elliot Spitzer's office put out a report in 2006 that is very informative and sums up the issue well. Here is the link;
http://www.oag.state.ny.us/bureaus/environmental/pdfs/Smoke%20Gets%20in%20Your%20Lungs%20Revised%20March%202008.pdf
or Google the report title: “Smoke Gets in Your Lungs” and “NY Attorney General”

Unfortunately, Minnesota has taken NO action on this fast growing problem. Ironically, our own Governor, Tim Pawlenty, recently rewarded a Minnesota outdoor wood boiler manufacturer, by granting tax exempt status to Central Boiler, as part of Minnesota's JOBZ program. This is about the dirtiest and most backward thinking form of energy imaginable. It's bad for people, and it's bad for the environment. We are at a loss to understand what Gov. Pawlenty was thinking.

We called and wrote the MPCA and MN Dept of Health. Chuck Stroebel, Environmental Scientist, was sympathetic, but said there is little they can do. State officials told us to contact County officials. Anoka County Health Dept. officials suggest contacting our local city officials, and even Anoka County Attorney Mr. Robert M.A. Johnson could only suggest suing our neighbors. We don't feel we should have to sue our neighbors for what should be a basic property right. the right to adequate, breathable air.

A picture is worth a thousand words, and documenting everything is the way we thought would convince officials for help. We built a web site, showing videos, photos, and a semi-regular blog with the latest smoke and smell stories we are going through, as well as our efforts in dealing with officials. I'm sure you are very busy, but if you can take a moment to look at the web site, the problem will be obvious. http://freeinside.net
Ours is not just an isolated incident. A quick Google search will turn up complaints on web sites, blogs, even YouTube has videos.

We have been breathing the smoke for over two years now. Thanksgiving 2008 will mark one year since we first complained to local officials. We are in a continuous loop of being passed off to one level of government after another and have given up hope.

We try not to be alarmists, but many nights we go to bed, blanketed in thick toxic clouds. We can't help but compare our situation to a miniature version of what happened in Bhopal India in 1984, or Donora PA in 1948. The smog won't kill us overnight as in those disasters, of course. But we wonder, over time, what effect on our health will result from inhaling all these chemicals. The air from INSIDE our homes comes from one place, OUTSIDE our homes.

President Elect Barack Obama, in his acceptance speech, stated, "Where you can breathe you can hope." We ask, what hope do we have when we often cannot breathe the very air that surrounds us?

Thank you for listening.