Recreational Fires Must Be Eliminated

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WELCOME TO HELL ON EARTH

The air is smoky from burning wood in North St. Paul, MN, almost every evening. It is a nightmare. What used to be a nice place to live has become a living hell.

WARNING: If you buy a house in North St. Paul, MN, you will regret it! It may be the biggest, most expensive mistake you ever make. You will breathe smoky air almost every day of your life in this town. This is not an exaggeration. The wood smoke in this town gets heavy and gets heavy often. When you want to get out of this dump of a town, how many people do you think are going to want to buy a house in a city where heavy air pollution every night is normal and clean air is rare? This blog gets thousands of visitors every year. The word is out: North St. Paul is a horrible place to live!

Fresh air is very rare around here. If you are considering moving to North St. Paul or buying a home here, I strongly recommend that you do not do it no matter how good of a price you get. The only way you will be happy in this town is if you love breathing smoky air almost every day. North St. Paul, MN, is a horrible place to live because of the smoky air!

Burning wood, grass, leaves, paper, cardboard, and sometimes plastic, construction materials, and chemicals, if it is combustible it gets burned in North St. Paul and you are going to breathe it.

The air was smoky 25 out of 31 evenings in July 2009. We had 37 hours of continuous wood smoke in the air Aug. 29th - 31st. There was wood smoke in the air 19 consecutive evenings from Aug. 21st to Sept. 8th. It rained heavily on Aug. 20th, providing the only relief we got from wood smoke for almost three weeks.

Is this a good way to live? No. It is a horrible way to live. Take it from someone who knows. Breathing smoky, polluted air every day is misery.

Every day in this city several people are having recreational fires. Every evening the air is filled with the stench of burning wood. I am one person sick and tired of breathing smoky air every day. Is it too much to ask to be able to breathe fresh air in your own home?

Who is responsible for this wood smoke nightmare? The four city council members are responsible. Council members Jan Walczak, Bob Bruton, Terry Furlong, and Dave Zick have refused to do anything about this wood smoke problem. They don't care if you have a child with asthma. They don't care if you have to live like a shut-in because the air is so polluted. They don't care if your sinuses burn because the wood smoke is so heavy.

Our four Council members have defended the rights of a small percentage of households to burn wood daily over the rights of all the rest of us to breathe.

You have no right to breathe under Walczak, Bruton, Furlong, and Zick. Burners have the right to burn wood 49 hours a week recreationally. The rest of us have no rights at all.

If you are considering purchasing real estate in the city of North Saint Paul, Minnesota (55109), factor this blog carefully into your decision. Buying a home in this city means that your kids will breathe smoky air while playing in the yard almost every day. Your baby will breathe smoky air in her crib should you leave the windows open around your house. If you leave your windows open you will wake up in the middle of the night choking on smoky air.

Perhaps worst of all, your utility rates will be high because you will have to run the air conditioner instead of leaving the windows open on a cool summer evening. You have no other choice because almost every night the air is too smoky to breathe in this city. Consider this blog your warning.

North St. Paul, Minnesota, is a wonderful community other than the wood smoke. If we could restore fresh air like we used to enjoy, life would be happy again. But that is not going to happen any time soon.

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Sunday, May 24, 2009

Sunday 05/24/2009 Burning

1:00 AM: Air is still smoky. The burner probably did not fully extinguish the fire.

2:00 AM: The air reeks of smoldering logs or the remnants of burnt wood. The air stinks so bad! You can't step outside for a breath of fresh air. You can't open the windows. You can't enjoy life in this damn town!

It is 2 AM as I write this. I would love nothing more than to step outside and look at the sky and enjoy a breath of fresh air. But if I do, I will end up stinking like burnt wood and have to take another shower. Since 5:30 PM, the air has been polluted continuously by burning wood. That's 9 hours of continuous foul air. It would be nice to be able to open the windows and cool down the house. It is 75 degrees inside, a cool 55 degrees outside. But we can't, or else the house will reek of burnt wood.

This wood smoke pollution has to end. Enough is enough!

11:00 AM: No wood smoke at this time. But I can smell the remnants of burnt wood on the breeze coming out of the west. Ick!

4:00 PM: Someone is burning grass. The exhaust fan is on to remove heat from cooking and it's sucking in the smoky air. I'm not sure who is burning, but it is probably the guy who always burns grass and has been doing so for years.

The grass smoke did not last long, not more than 5 minutes.

6:15 PM: Something is in the air. I'm not sure what, but it is irritating my nose. It could be very light wood smoke. Nothing irritates my nose more than wood smoke. It is like pepper spray.

7:00 PM: Light wood smoke at this time. Unlike 45 minutes ago, you can smell it and know for certain that it is wood smoke.

7:30 PM: Faint wood smoke.

8:30 PM: Light wood smoke.

9:30 PM: Light wood smoke.

I went to bed and woke up around 1 AM. I checked the air. It was faintly smoky. Can't open the windows yet. It would be nice, because it is warm and stuffy in here. But even faint wood smoke is irritating to me. I do not want to smell wood smoke no matter how weak or strong it is when I am in bed, OK?

I woke up a second time around 3:30 AM. The air was fresh and clear at this time. Finally, I can open the windows and cool down the house!