County considering stricter rules for furnaces that burn wood
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Outdoor wood-fired boilers in Allegheny County could be controlled more tightly than state regulations demand, but the Allegheny County Board of Health first wants to find out what communities in other states have done to regulate smokestack emissions.
Jim Thompson, the Allegheny County Health Department air program manager, told the board that 10 wood burning furnaces operate in the county -- five by businesses and five by homeowners. The burners, built outside of buildings, usually with short smokestacks, produce considerable amounts of smoke and pollution for their size.
A single wood burner, operating efficiently, can produce as much particulate pollution per hour as two large diesel trucks, 45 automobiles, 1,000 oil furnaces or 1,800 gas furnaces, he said. Sometimes owners burn more than clean wood, including unsplit logs, wood treated with creosote, household garbage, automobile tires and even animal carcasses that worsen pollution levels.
Inside the furnaces, wood is burned inside a jacket filled with water that flows through pipes into the building or house. The burning usually occurs at low temperatures and can even smolder and produce large amounts of dangerous smoke. Such furnaces are used mostly in rural areas to heat homes and provide hot water.
The state passed regulations last year to control emissions from outdoor wood burners, and the county now has the option of adopting those regulations or enacting more stringent ones.
But after extensive discussion, the board opted to gather more information and review stricter regulations adopted elsewhere, including Connecticut, before considering adoption of stricter regulations.
One consideration would be to require larger property setbacks that would likely eliminate any burners in Pittsburgh and greatly reduce the number that could be installed, even in more rural areas of the county.
As is true with state regulations, existing outdoor furnaces could be grandfathered into county regulations, Mr. Thompson said.
Mr. Thompson said environmental groups and industry have voiced approval for stricter regulations of wood burners, whose pollution levels make it more difficult for the county to meet federal air quality standards.
Wood fired boilers prompt complaints to the health department each year, he said.
Rachel Filippini, executive director of the Group Against Smog and Pollution, said outdoor wood-fired boilers are gaining in popularity because wood is a renewable energy that is cheap and readily available. But emissions from wood burning "are quite toxic."
"Unfortunately, they are a significant and growing source of [particulate] emissions in Pennsylvania," she said, noting the pollutants are tied to asthma, respiratory infections, reduced lung function, cancer, heart attack, stroke and premature death.
"There is no good reason for Allegheny County to adopt these [state] regulations when we can and should develop better regulations that are more protective of residents' health," she said.
First Published March 12, 2011 12:19 am
