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.

Tell others about this blog!

Monday, August 31, 2009

August wood smoke tabulation completed

I completed the wood smoke tabulation for August 2009. We have four hours to go until August ends. We've already had wood smoke this evening, and still do as of this writing, so I may have to change a couple numbers if the intensity of the wood smoke increases or lasts beyond 11 PM.

North St. Paul Wood Smoke Tabulation By Month

Monday 08/31/2009 Air Pollution

Summer draws to a close. It's been a brutal hell of wood smoke pollution in North St. Paul. It isn't going to get any better anytime soon.

2:00 AM: Faint wood smoke.

3:30 AM: Very faint wood smoke. You can barely smell it. You can tell there is wood smoke in the air. If the windows were open it would be coming in the house and you could smell it.

4:15 AM: Very faint wood smoke continues.

6:30 AM: Very faint wood smoke continues. This marks 37 hours of nearly constant wood smoke in the air.

4:00 PM: Air is not fresh. Something is in it. I can't say it is wood smoke.

6:30 PM: Light wood smoke. It's getting smoky already. Aren't we lucky? 71 degrees at this time.

7:08 PM: Light wood smoke continues.

8:15 PM: Faint wood smoke.

8:45 PM: Moderate wood smoke. Really smoky outside.

9:37 PM: Faint to light wood smoke. It's losing intensity.

9:55 PM: Faint wood smoke. Heading in the right direction. 60 degrees.

10:15 PM: Very faint wood smoke. You can still smell wood smoke in the air. Not much, but it is there.

11:30 PM: Light wood smoke. It has increased in intensity again.

Another smoky hell of an evening. Like usual.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Sunday 08/30/2009 Air Pollution

Wood smoke was in the air all of last night and all day today.

1:15 AM: Light wood smoke. Checked the air on the way back to bed. It has gotten smokier outside. Must be from the use of a fireplace.

2:15 AM: Faint to light wood smoke.

2:45 AM: Faint to light wood smoke. About 50 degrees outside at this time.

3:15 AM: Light wood smoke. It's gotten smokier outside in the past half hour.

8:30 AM: Very faint trace of wood smoke lingers in the air. Woke up, checked the air, was not surprised to detect wood smoke in it.

11:00 AM: Very faint trace of wood smoke continues. This makes about 18 hours of nearly constant wood smoke in the air.

3:30 PM: Very faint trace of wood smoke continues. Woke up from a nap. No, I am not surprised to find wood smoke in the air at this time. A few windows were left open. I could smell a very faint trace of wood smoke inside the house when I awoke. 65 degrees at this time.

5:00 PM: Very faint trace of wood smoke continues. This makes 24 hours of constant wood smoke in the air. No fresh air for 24 hours in the city of North St. Paul!

5:45 PM: Faint wood smoke. The wood smoke is getting stronger. Probably some jerk grilling meat using wood. The recreational bonfires are bad enough, but a trend is growing in popularity of using wood for grilling food. We often get wood smoke in the early evening from grilling and then wood smoke all evening long from recreational fires. 67 degrees at this time in St. Paul according to the TV news. The Weatherbug widget on this blog indicates a temperature at 71 degrees measured at North High School. I am wondering how accurate it is.

6:30 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. It is pretty smoky outside. This makes 25 hours of nearly constant wood smoke in the air.

7:15 PM: Faint wood smoke.

7:55 PM: Light wood smoke. Getting stronger.

8:30 PM: Faint wood smoke. Not as strong as before.

9:00 PM: Faint wood smoke.

9:30 PM: Light wood smoke. Getting stronger again.

10:00 PM: Moderate wood smoke. Really smoky outside. 59 degrees at this time. This makes 29 hours of constant wood smoke.

10:45 PM: Moderate to strong wood smoke. It is very smoky outside. The wood smoke smells horrible!

11:15 PM: Moderate to strong wood smoke continues.

11:30 PM: Moderate wood smoke. It's lost a little intensity. As if going from very smoky to really smoky can be considered a positive.

Midnight: Moderate wood smoke continues.

Very faint wood smoke continued until at least 6:30 AM Monday morning. The wood smoke started at around 5:15 PM Saturday night and all day Sunday you could smell a faint trace of wood smoke in the air. Wood smoke could be smelled coming in the open windows. At 6:30 AM Monday morning a faint trace of wood smoke could be detected. This makes 37 hours of nearly constant smoky air in North St. Paul!

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Saturday 08/29/2009 Air Pollution

1:00 AM: Faint wood smoke continues. If you open your windows you will smell wood smoke inside your house. Do you want smoky air in your home at 1 AM? How about at 7 PM? We don't.

1:45 AM: Very faint wood smoke. Wood smoke is fading.

3:45 AM: Air is mostly fresh. Woke up and checked the air quality. Very faint trace of something is in the air. Can't tell what it is. Open windows at this time.

There was no grass smoke in the air this morning or afternoon.

4:30 PM: No wood smoke. Light rain drizzle at this time. Cloudy, 58 degrees measured at North High School according to the Weatherbug widget on this blog. 63 degrees according to TV website.

I don't know how many recreational bonfires there will be tonight with weather this cool and the light drizzle that dampened the ground. I expect people will be using fireplaces tonight and that the air will be very smoky like it was last Saturday night. Last Saturday was a smoky hell. It was the smokiest I have ever seen this city. I found clouds of smoke or wood smoke fog in many places around the northern half of the city. We will see if tonight gets as bad as last Saturday.

Click here to read about last Saturday.

5:15 PM: Very faint trace of wood smoke at this time. Minutes after publishing this post I noticed wood smoke coming in the window. It's already starting. We will likely have wood smoke all night long and well into the morning hours. Would you like to live like this?

6:00 PM: Light wood smoke. This is an indication of what is to come.

7:00 PM: Faint to light wood smoke varying with the breeze.

7:25 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. It's getting stronger.

8:00 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke continues.

8:30 PM: Moderate wood smoke. It's really smoky outside.

9:30 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke varying with the wind. It's breezy outside.

9:45 PM: Moderate to strong wood smoke. Very smoky outside. You can't stand to breathe this air!

10:30 PM: Faint to light wood smoke. The intensity of the air pollution has diminished. It hasn't diminished enough to open the windows. The entire house would smell like wood smoke if the windows were open.

10:55 PM: Very faint trace of wood smoke remains. The wood smoke is almost gone.

11:38 PM: Very faint wood smoke. It's gotten a little stronger.

Midnight: Very faint wood smoke continues. Around 55 degrees at this time.

It was smoky all night long and all morning and afternoon into the next day. By 5:30 PM Sunday morning, wood smoke was in the air for almost all of the past 24 hours.

Aren't we fortunate to have four city council members who make us breathe smoky air every day? Would you like to live in this city?

Friday, August 28, 2009

June wood smoke tabulation

I completed the wood smoke tabulation for June 2009. Please give it a read.

North St. Paul Wood Smoke Tabulation By Month

Friday 08/28/2009 Air Pollution

1 AM: A very faint trace of wood smoke remains in the air. Open the windows.

12:30 PM: A very faint smokiness is in the air. It doesn't smell like grass or wood. I don't know what it is. I've been told that the local schools have permits to burn. I have noticed the odor of burning paper several times by St. Peter's church and also by Richardson Elementary School in the past.

1:30 PM: Very faint smokiness lingers.

2:00 PM: Earlier smokiness is gone.

5:00 PM: No wood smoke or burning grass yet. There will certainly be wood smoke tonight. The air contains wood smoke every night. 72 degrees and partly cloudy at this time. A gorgeous, cool summer evening.

A month from now the burning of leaves will pick up. Ten years ago there was no wood smoke in this town. I don't remember having to close the windows once in the late 1990s or very early 2000s because of wood smoke. We have to close them every day now. People burned grass 10 years ago, but not at the level they do now. People burn yard waste more now than ever. Burning encourages more burning. One guy smokes up the air one night and the neighbor down the street returns the favor the next night by burning wood or by burning yard waste. It's air pollution anarchy in North St. Paul, Minnesota. It's a nightmare.

7:00 PM: No wood smoke. Windy.

7:50 PM: Faint wood smoke. Still windy.

8:15 PM: Light wood smoke. Wood smoke varies from faint to light on the wind. Wind is blowing east, burner is to the west somewhere. No one around us is burning at the time. The burner could be a quarter to a half-a-mile away or more. Wood smoke goes wherever the wind blows. 64 degrees at this time. Cool, breezy, a beautiful evening to have your windows open except in this town.

It's going to be another smoky hell of an evening in North St. Paul.

9:00 PM: Light wood smoke.

9:15 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. It has gotten stronger in the past 15 minutes.

10:10 PM: Light wood smoke continues. It must be one hell of a smoky fire. It is windy at this time. The more wind the more diluted the wood smoke will get. Nobody around us is burning at this time. Wind is still blowing east. 63 degrees now.

11:30 PM: Faint wood smoke continues.

Midnight: Faint wood smoke continues.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Thursday 08/27/2009 Air Pollution

4:25 PM: Faint grass smoke. Someone is burning grass.

4:35 PM: Light grass smoke. Grass smoke has gotten stronger. Lucky us.

4:50 PM: Grass smoke gone at this time.

5:35 PM: Faint grass smoke. Is it the same burner as an hour ago or a new grass burner? I don't know. I think I know the area where it is coming from. If the grass smoke continues for a while I am fairly certain I know who is doing it. I will run over there and check if it lasts long. 80 degrees and mostly sunny at this time. Nice outside. An evening like this just has to be ruined by wood smoke. Any bets?

6:00 PM: No smoke of any kind in the air at this time. The grass smoke at 5:35 PM did not last long.

7:00 PM: No wood smoke.

8:00 PM: No wood smoke, something in the air. The air is not fresh. I can smell something in it. I can't tell what it is.

8:35 PM: Saw a recreational fire at the house on the northeast corner of 19th & 2nd.

9:00 PM: No wood smoke where we are.

9:30 PM: Very faint wood smoke.

10:00 PM: Very faint wood smoke.

10:30 PM: Light wood smoke. It's gotten smokier.

11:00 PM: Faint wood smoke.

11:15 PM: Very faint wood smoke.

Midnight: Light wood smoke. The wood smoke varies from faint to light every few minutes. It is 68 degrees outside, 78 degrees inside this house. I would love to open the windows to let the cool air in. Doing so would make the house smell like wood smoke.

Our city council is the worst. They are the reason we must breathe smoky air every day.

Only a very faint trace of wood smoke remained at 1 AM so I opened the windows.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Wednesday 08/26/2009 Air Pollution

7:03 PM: Faint wood smoke for a few minutes. Then it was gone. 75 degrees, cloudy, another mild summer evening.

It's another smoky hell of an evening in North St. Paul. Does that come as any surprise to you? It should not. What is surprising is when it isn't smoky in this town. We got two days of smoke-free air with no rain in July. We had a total of six smoke-free days that month including the four it rained.

8:00 PM: No wood smoke where we are. There will be more. Give it time.

At this time I went around the city for a little bit. It was early for recreational fires. Most do not get started until 9 PM or later. I was bored and wanted to get out of the house. I did not do a thorough search for wood smoke tonight. This was something to occupy me before turning in. My clothes got all smoky. A shower will be required before bed.




The pushpins on the map are approximate. When I placed them, they moved a little bit from the original spot.

Bonfires I saw


1) I saw a HUGE plume of smoke rising from a backyard on Chippewa around 8:15 PM. I could not smell wood smoke in front of the house but could smell it on 17th just north of Delaware. I could see from 2nd that a house on Chippewa was having the fire. It looked like they had some people over for some air pollution. A half-hour later 2nd St. was all smoked up.

One person has a fire and dozens, if not hundreds, have to breathe smoky air. Does that sound fair? That's how our city council makes us live.

2) A small but very smoky bonfire on the north side of Poplar just east of Lake Blvd. I was heading down Poplar when I saw light wood smoke haze in the headlights of a vehicle at the stop sign about 9 PM. Strong wood smoke in the area. I was at first glad it was smoky here because city council member Bob Bruton, a supporter of recreational burning, lives a couple of houses north of the burner. I was upset when I discovered the smoke from the fire was drifting south-southeast and Bruton probably wouldn't be able to smell it. It wasn't smoky in front of Bruton's house at all. I had difficultly breathing when I was right in front of the house of the burner. My body would not allow more than a shallow breath. Wood smoke is very hard on me. I can still feel heaviness in my lungs an hour later.

It was smoky of varying intensity all along the Poplar-Swan horseshoe. I could smell the wood smoke from that fire all along the southern edge of Silver Lake and all the way along 18th Ave. from Henry to west beyond Charles. The wood smoke smelled the same on 18th as on Poplar. I found no other burners in the area at the time. It had to be from the same source. That is a quarter-mile distance from the source. Wood smoke can travel much farther than that. One person has a fire and people a quarter-mile away have to breathe smoky air.

Around 9:30 PM the fire was extinguished. With the fire out you could still smell wood smoke in front of the house.

3) Maplewood bonfire. It was smoky all over the section of Maplewood bounded by Beam, McKnight, Lydia, and Helen/Bellaire. I found one bonfire on the northeast corner of E. Standridge & Mary St. As smoky as it was up there, I figure there had to be more than one burner producing smoke covering such a large area, about an eighth-mile square. But maybe not. The burner on Poplar smoked up a neighborhood a quarter-mile away. One burner can produce a lot of wood smoke.

Areas of smokiness

I could smell wood smoke all over the place. When I was out I could smell a faint trace at Shawnee & Chippewa getting stronger heading toward Beam (the smoke could have been coming from Maplewood). Faint wood smoke at Beam & Helen. Light wood smoke on Helen just north of Navajo. Strong wood smoke at Poplar & Lake. Light to moderate wood smoke all along the southern edge of Silver Lake. It was not very smoky at 18th & Margaret when I was by there. I thought it would be. Nothing more than a faint trace of wood smoke similar to what was blanketing much of the northern half of the city.

9:45 PM: Light wood smoke. Back home now. It smells a little like burning paper. Not pleasant. Ick.

10:05 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. It's getting smokier outside quickly.

10:30 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke continues.

11:00 PM: Faint to light wood smoke. The intensity of the air pollution has decreased. Aren't we lucky? It is 67 degrees now. It would be nice to open the windows and enjoy the cool air like the city suggests we do in the city newsletter. Who wants a home to smell like wood smoke?

11:38 PM: Very faint trace of wood smoke remains. The air is clearing. Yay for us!

Any of you readers out there wish you lived in this city? Smoky air almost every day. I don't have asthma. I don't have allergies. I don't have any respiratory diseases. I am in good health. The smoky air in this city is hard on me. What do you think it would be like for an elderly person or a kid with asthma? If it is hard on me, it has to be killer on them.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Tuesday 08/25/2009 Air Pollution

6:10 PM: Faint to light wood smoke. I think someone is grilling with wood. I do not object to propane or charcoal grill smoke. I do object to wood smoke from any source. Grill smoke does not smell as bad as wood smoke and it does not last long. There is one guy nearby who grills with wood as a primary fuel who does not extinguish the wood after he is done grilling, letting it burn itself out over 3 - 5 hours. After his wood burns itself out is usually when the bonfires start. We often get constant wood smoke for 10 hours or longer. 79 degrees, sunny, a beautiful summer evening.

Will tonight be another smoky night? We will see.

6:45 PM: Only a very faint trace of wood smoke remains.

7:30 PM: No wood smoke. Fresh air.

8:30 PM: No wood smoke.

9:00 PM: No wood smoke. 70 degrees at this time. A nice, cool evening.

10:00 PM: No wood smoke.

11:00 PM: No wood smoke.

Midnight: No wood smoke.

Very little wood smoke today. Other than the brief wood smoke shortly after 6 PM there was none today. A few times a month we get lucky in this town. This was one of them. After that insanely smoky Saturday night, we deserve some fresh air.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Email from a prospective home buyer

I got an email from someone saying they are interested in buying a home in North St. Paul. As is my policy, I don't reveal identifying information about people who contact me unless they are public officials. The emailer writes:

I read you blog with interest. I am looking to possibly buy a home in North St Paul and had no idea about the wood fires smoke issue. Has the city looked into addressing this in anyway? Is it all from back yard fire pits or is this also brush burning?

I was searching on line for crime reports to get a better feel for the neighbor hoods – any resources for this you know about?

Thanks,


If you purchase a home in this smoky city, it could be the biggest mistake you ever make in your life. Don't even consider it. You will regret it!

This city is a very nice place to live except for the daily wood smoke which is usually so bad you have to close up all your windows. Most people look at houses during the daytime, so they will have no idea what the air pollution is like in the evenings. As you can see from this blog, the wood smoke in this town is terrible. North St. Paul is a nightmare and has been for years.

Most of the air pollution in this town is the result of recreational wood burning in the evenings. There are some who burn brush, grass clippings, and soon will be burning leaves. But there are less of these people than there are wood burners. Yard waste burns quickly. Logs burn slowly. There are a handful of yard waste burners within a quarter mile radius of us. I've smelled burning grass at 7 AM earlier this summer and smelled it several times in the late morning or early afternoon as well, usually on the weekends when I'm around. Truth be told, I prefer yard waste burning to wood burning. I don't like either.

I have been complaining to the city since 2008 about the wood smoke problem. The problem has been growing worse every year. Wood smoke became an issue a few years ago, possibly back in 2003. Ten years ago, nobody burned wood. You never had to close your windows. You never had to worry about someone starting a bonfire late at night. Wood smoke is a daily event now. The Mayor, Mike Kuehn, feels strongly about the wood smoke problem. He is the only elected official in this town who has demonstrated a willingness to help. Unfortunately, he cannot do anything about this problem without action from the city council. All four of the city council members have refused to address this issue.

The root of the wood smoke problem is the city's recreational burning ordinance which allows the burning of wood all seven days a week between 4 PM - 11 PM. If the city allows burning everyday, somebody somewhere is going to be burning. If it isn't raining, I never have trouble finding wood smoke when I go looking for it. I usually don't have to look for it because I can smell the wood smoke in our yard. Wood smoke does not stay confined to the property of the burner. It travels wherever the wind blows it. I have tracked wood smoke a half-mile to its source. So somebody burning a half-mile from you on a Sunday evening can smoke up the air where you are if the wind is right.

There seems to be three or four burners on every block, which is a small percentage of households. I estimate that about 15% of the households are burners north of Highway 36, which is where we live. Most households never burn. There are a few frequent burners who burn several times a week and there are those who burn a few times a month or a few times a summer. But with hundreds of homes in a residential area about a mile square, you will always find someone burning every night of the week.

People often burn after the allowed time of 11 PM. Then you get people who don't extinguish their fires and leave them smoldering all night long. This happens all the time. Several times this summer the air has been horribly smoky at 3AM or 4 AM. If you have a burner within a block or two of you, you can often smell the odor of burnt wood on the breeze in the morning. Do you want to smell burnt wood at 7 AM? If you want to live in North St. Paul, you better answer "yes" to that question.

I contacted city council member Jan Walczak in late May of 2008 about the wood smoke problem. Her response was patronizing, reminding me of the hours allotted for recreational burning, as if I didn't already know the city allowed burning 49 hours a week. She refused to help.

I contacted Mayor Kuehn and city council members Bob Bruton, Terry Furlong, and Dave Zick in late May 2009 about the wood smoke problem. Mayor Kuehn was sympathetic and understood the scope of the problem. All three of the city council members were of no help. Bruton stated his support for recreational burning. Council members Furlong and Zick ignored me completely.

We have suffered tremendously because of this wood smoke problem. It is not isolated to my neighborhood. It is a city-wide problem that is not going away on its own.

Living in North St. Paul, MN, is like living in hell.

As for crime, there is crime in every city. There isn't much here. North St. Paul has a large population of seniors, many of whom have lived in the city for decades. If you are friendly to them, they will look out for you. If you stay away from the areas with apartments, duplexes, and lower income areas such as the areas around 11th & McKnight and 7th & McKnight, crime will not be something you will have to be concerned about. If you want further information about crime in North St. Paul, you could try contacting the Police Chief to see if he can be of assistance to you.

If you enjoy breathing smoky air everyday and want to breathe smoky air as you lie in bed every night, North St. Paul is the perfect place for you. If you don't want to breathe smoky air everyday, you are best to buy a home elsewhere. You have to love wood smoke to live in this town or you will be very unhappy.

If the city ever eliminates this wood smoke problem, which does not seem likely to happen anytime soon, I would recommend living here highly. Until then, steer clear of this town.

Monday 08/24/2009 Air Pollution

2:00 AM: Very faint trace of wood smoke remains. Also a very faint trace of sulfur in the air from the industrial section of town. The odor isn't that bad so I opened the windows at this time.

1:30 PM: Faint grass smoke. Someone is burning grass. I wonder how often this happens when I'm not around to notice it.

1:50 PM: Grass smoke continues.

3:30 PM: Faint sulfur odor on the wind.

3:50 PM: A guy in a yard on the south side of 17th Ave. between Helen & Margaret was burning wood and grass (mostly grass) in his yard. He was producing a huge cloud of smoke that could be detected on the wind blocks away. I saw him doing it. He was easily visible from the road. Windy at this time.

Today is a big day for grass burning. Today is also a big day for this blog with 113 visitors so far. The more people who read about the horrors of living in this city the better.

6:00 PM: No wood smoke.

7:15 PM: No wood smoke.

8:15 PM: Faint wood smoke. You knew there had to be wood smoke this evening. Fell asleep after this time.

10:15 PM: No wood smoke.

11:15 PM: No wood smoke.

Midnight: No wood smoke.

Overall a very light day for wood smoke. I fell asleep after 8:15 PM so I don't know how long that wood smoke lasted. The wind usually blows from west to east but was coming out of the southwest today. We wouldn't detect any smoke from burners to the west and possibly to the east of us. It was a little too windy for a recreational fire. But as you can see from the guy on 17th burning wood and grass at 3:50 PM today, safety doesn't concern most recreational polluters.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Unfunny joke in the city newsletter

I read the city newsletter this morning and found that someone at city hall has a sense of humor. Not a funny sense of humor, a cruel one like rubbing salt in an open wound. The city newsletter offers suggestions for saving energy and money on utility bills. The newsletter offers this advice:

If your area cools off in the evening, take advantage of the cool evenings to cool off your entire house. Open windows and doors with screens to bring the inside temperature down.

What a great suggestion! I am sure none of us living in North St. Paul would have ever thought of that. The only problem is the air is so damn smoky every evening that you can't open your windows. You are a prisoner in your own home most evenings in this town. Opening your windows will bring all the wood smoke in and your entire house will reek of burning wood. You will choke on smoky air in bed at night as the wood smoke in this city often lasts well into the morning hours and is so strong you can't breathe. Wood smoke contains carcinogens and is a health hazard. Someone at city hall wants us to breathe poisonous air.

Us and all of our neighbors have to run our air conditioners on cool evenings because of the wood smoke pollution in this city. When it is 65 degrees and cool with low humidity, the air is usually too smoky to open the windows. I can see my neighbors' windows and they are usually closed at night, as are ours. I have heard my neighbors' air conditioners running on many cool nights when we should be able to open the windows but cannot. And you never know when someone will start burning wood after 11 PM or leave a bonfire smoldering all night. That happens often.

Ten years ago we left the windows open all the time except when it got really hot. We could leave the windows open for days or weeks at a time and never had to worry about wood smoke. Wood burning is so common these days that almost every evening is smoky. North St. Paul is a nightmare. The four members of the city council have refused to do anything about it. Mayor Kuehn is the only city leader who has offered to help.

Sunday 08/23/2009 Air Pollution

A smoky morning and a smoky evening. This is a typical day in North St. Paul, MN.

1:00 AM: Light to moderate wood smoke continues.

5:00 AM: Very faint odor of wood smoke continues.

7:00 AM: Very faint trace of wood smoke can still be detected in the air.

10:00 AM: Air is clear.

4:40 PM: Very faint trace of wood smoke on the breeze. It did not last more than a minute. We were having dinner when the smoke was noticed. It was wood smoke, not grill smoke.

5:00 PM: No wood smoke here. I can see smoke rising in the distance. Not much of a breeze now. The smoke seems to be drifting away from us. Sometimes we get lucky in this town. Not often. About 75 degrees now, sunny, a beautiful evening to be alive -- except in this town. Living in North St. Paul, Minnesota, is like dying and going to hell.

6:00 PM: No smoke here. I can see a lot of smoke rising in the distance. It doesn't look like grill smoke. Same person is burning.

7:00 PM: Faint trace of something in the air. I can't say what it is.

8:00 PM: Faint wood smoke in the air. Someone is burning. I don't know where. No one around us is doing it.

8:30 PM: Faint wood smoke continues.

9:30 PM: Light wood smoke. It has gotten smokier and will get even smokier as the night wears on. It always does. 70 degrees and very nice outside at this time. Our windows are closed as they are every night in this miserable hell of a city.

Unfunny Joke In City Newsletter

10:00 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke.

10:30 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke continues.

11:00 PM: Light wood smoke.

Midnight: Very faint trace of wood smoke and a sulfur smell can be detected. The sulfur smell is coming from the industrial section of town. The two odors combined smell a little like smoke from fireworks.

This evening was smoky but was not as bad as I expected. Do you want to breathe smoky air as you lie in bed at 11 PM? Who does? I woke up around 2 AM. There was a very faint trace of wood smoke and very faint sulfur in the air still. It is warm and stuffy inside the house. 77 degrees on the thermostat. I opened the windows to let the air in. The cool air felt so good. I was getting sweaty in bed because all the windows had to be closed as usual.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Saturday 08/22/2009 Air Pollution

Welcome to hell on earth. This evening is the worst for wood smoke I have ever experienced in North St. Paul. Wood smoke was literally everywhere in the northern half of the city. The wood smoke in some places was so heavy it was like driving through a fog. I have been to several campgrounds in my day and have never experienced wood smoke like I have tonight.

1:15 AM: Light wood smoke continues.

2:30 AM: Light to moderate wood smoke. It has gotten smokier in the last hour. It's not unusual for North St. Paul to get smokier at 2:30 AM. It is 57 degrees outside at this time. Nice and cool. Sure would be nice to have the windows open, BUT WE CAN'T! We'd have to breathe smoky air in bed. Nobody around us is burning at this hour. I do not know where it is coming from. It could be a burner blocks away with the breeze bringing it right here. People do not understand that wood smoke does not stay confined to the property lines of the burner. It can be detected a half-mile or further from the source. I know because I've tracked it that far.

4:45 AM: Faint wood smoke continues.

9:00 AM: Very faint trace of wood smoke remains in the air.

9:30 AM: I passed by the area of 18th & Margaret. It was smoky in that area. Someone is burning wood over there or left a fireplace or bonfire smoldering.

12:45 PM: Very faint trace of wood smoke remains in the air where we are.

2:30 PM: No wood smoke where we are. I passed by 18th & Margaret again. Five hours later it is still smoky in that area. It really stinks. There are two homes for sale on that block between Margaret & Charles. I feel sorry for anyone who buys a home there or anywhere in this smoky city. 75 degrees and sunny at this time.

5:05 PM: Faint wood some for a few minutes. Then it was gone.

6:00 PM: No wood smoke.

7:00 PM: No wood smoke.

8:00 PM: No wood smoke. I can see smoke rising from a block away from us. I can't smell it so I can't say what it is.

9:15 PM: No wood smoke. 62 degrees, cool, very nice.

At this time I went for a drive around the northern half of the city. It didn't take more than a few seconds to find wood smoke. It would be easier to list the few spots that didn't have wood smoke. The wood smoke was everywhere. There were a few pockets of fresh air here and there, but not many. I have never seen the wood smoke so bad as tonight. The wood smoke tonight is worse than it has ever been in the winter. It was smoky all along Silver Lake and all the blocks south. It was smoky by Tower Park, as usual. It was smoky over by 15th & Spirit Drive. It was smoky by Casey Park and the neighborhood to the north. I drove up and down almost every road in the northern half of the city. I could not find more than a few blocks without wood smoke.

The good news is that I found wood smoke in front of the homes of city council members Bob Bruton, Jan Walczak, and Dave Zick. I hope they have their windows open so they can enjoy that smoky air. Inhale those carcinogens deep into your lungs.

I found a few recreational fires. Wood smoke covering the entire city like this has to come from people using fireplaces, too. It is cool tonight, 62 degrees when I was out. Using a fireplace in August? I wouldn't put it past the people in this city. This city is crazy about burning wood. I don't understand why.

Bonfires I saw
  • Indian Way & Chippewa - Someone is having a party at the home on the northwest corner and they have a fire going.
  • 19th & 1st - The guy in the wheelchair at the house on the southeast corner is having a smoky fire. It is a small fire but it puts out the smoke.
  • 17th & Charles - Bonfire second or third house on 17th east of Charles on the south side of the street.
  • 14th & Margaret - Recreational fire at the third or fourth house east of Margaret on the north side of the street.
  • There was one more. I can't read my writing. It is difficult to write in a moving car.
Strong wood smoke

I encountered strong wood smoke everywhere.

Wood smoke fog

I found several areas with wood smoke so heavy it formed a cloud or hung close to the ground like a fog. This is only a partial list.
  • Poplar between Helen & Lake - Could see wood smoke haze in the streetlight.
  • Shoshone & Chippewa - A cloud of horrible smelling smoke extended a half block west on Shoshone from Chippewa and extended all the way east to 2nd. The smoke smelled like a combination of wood, grass, and paper. It was horrible smelling.
  • 17th & Helen - Could see the wood smoke haze in the street lights.
  • 15th & 3rd - The wood smoke hung low like a fog. Could see the wood smoke in the headlights.
  • Gerald & Shawnee - Could see the smoke haze in the streetlight.
  • Helen north of Beam - Could see the smoke haze in the streetlight.
  • Beam & Mary Lane - Could see the smoke haze in the streetlight.
I cannot understand why the city council makes us breathe air this polluted. If you can see the wood smoke, is it good to inhale it into your lungs? Some of that wood smoke smelled so putrid I couldn't stand to breathe the air.

After driving around for a half-hour with the windows open I came back home with my clothes smelling like wood smoke.

10:15 PM: Light wood smoke where we are. Back home now.

10:30 PM: Moderate wood smoke. It's getting smokier quickly.

11:00 PM: Moderate wood smoke continues.

It's going to be a long smoky hell of a night. Can't open the windows for fresh air because there is none to be found anywhere in this city! North St. Paul, MN, is hell on earth.

11:45 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke continues.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Wood smoke tabulation by month

I am working on tabulating the wood smoke pollution misery we endure living in North St. Paul, Minnesota. I am preparing the numbers by month in a way I hope will convey how terrible the wood smoke is in this town.

Comments are enabled on this post. Feel free to leave a comment if you like.

I rank the strength of wood smoke using three categories: Faint, Light, Moderate, and Strong/Heavy. I use qualifiers to further break down the categories such as Very Faint, Very Strong, when necessary. When the intensity of wood smoke is in between categories, I will note it in a way like Faint to Light or Moderate to Strong and the like.

To give you a clearer picture of what the categories mean I will define them.

Faint: You can slightly smell the wood smoke. It is present enough to know unmistakably it is wood smoke. You wouldn't want to breathe this air in your bedroom when you are trying to sleep.

Light: Wood smoke of a stronger intensity than Faint. It is potent enough to make you close your windows else your house will smell lightly like wood smoke. It is unpleasant to breathe.

Moderate: The wood smoke is strong enough to be very unpleasant. Wood smoke is the only thing you can smell. Moderate wood smoke will obliterate other odors like lilacs and blossoms. Being outside for a few minutes will leave your clothes with a light wood smoke odor. Breathing air this smoky long enough may cause sinus irritation.

Strong: The wood smoke is so intense it makes you sick to your stomach. Being in strong wood smoke for a few seconds will leave your clothes reeking of wood smoke. The strength of the odor in your clothes is comparable to spending a couple of hours in a smoky bar. You cannot stand to be outside in this intense smoke. You can often taste wood smoke this heavy. Leaving your windows open will make your whole house smell like burning wood in minutes. Strong wood smoke can cause burning sinuses, eye irritation, and nausea after a few minutes of breathing the air.

In my tabulation, I count wood smoke on the evening that it starts. When I log wood smoke daily, if the smoke persists after midnight I log it into the next day. For the purposes of this tabulation, I do not count wood smoke after midnight as being part of the next day. I count it as being part of the prior evening. If the wood smoke starts at 6 PM and lasts until 5 AM, that counts as one evening. For this tabulation, the evenings start at 4 PM. I chose this time because it is very rare to have any wood smoke before it.

I did not factor grass smoke into my tabulation. Grass burning tends to happen more in the morning or early afternoon from what I have experienced. Smoke from yard waste is not as much of a nuisance as wood smoke is and it does not last long. Smoky air from burning yard waste often does not last beyond 15 minutes. Wood smoke, on the other hand, often lasts 8 to 10 hours or longer in this city.

* My tabulation of late night burning may be understated as I am often not awake after 11 PM. All the data presented represents wood smoke where we live and nowhere else. It is what we experience on our property.

September 2009

Number of days in month: 30
Number of evenings with noticeable wood smoke in the air: 18
Number of evenings with no wood smoke: 12
Number of days it rained when there was no wood smoke in the evening: 3
Number of evenings with no wood smoke and no rain: 9
Number of evenings of moderately strong wood smoke or higher: 8
Number of evenings with strong wood smoke: 1
Number of evenings with wood smoke before 11 PM: 17
Number of evenings with wood smoke after 11 PM: 11

September was another smoky hell of a month with wood smoke in the air 60% of the evenings. There was very little rain this month. There were two days without wood smoke on the 10th and 21st when rain was in the weather forecast but it did not rain. On the 22nd and 23rd, we enjoyed two evenings with no wood smoke when it did not rain. The sky was cloudy gray both evenings. It looked like it could have rained on the 22nd, but no precipitation was in the forecast.

Cool temperatures of fall gave us a little benefit at the end of the month. We enjoyed an evening without wood smoke on the 30th when the temperature was in the 50s. The cool temperatures may have put a damper on recreational air pollution from bonfires, but it likely encouraged the use of fireplaces and wood burning stoves. On the 26th, there was faint to light wood smoke in the air by 10 AM when the temperature was 56 degrees, most likely from a fireplace. A very faint trace of some type of smoke was detectable almost all of the day until it got really smoky that evening. On the 29th, there was very faint wood smoke in the air around 11 PM when the temperature was in the low 40s.

On 9/09, we enjoyed our first evening without wood smoke in 20 days! We endured 19 consecutive evenings with wood smoke up until that day. From the 21st to the 23rd, we enjoyed three evenings in a row without wood smoke. That was our longest stretch of fresh air this month.

Three days of fresh air in a row is a blessing in this town.

August 2009

Number of days in month: 31
Number of evenings with noticeable wood smoke in the air: 21
Number of evenings with no wood smoke: 10
Number of days it rained when there was no wood smoke in the evening: 5
Number of evenings with no wood smoke and no rain: 5
Number of evenings of moderately strong wood smoke or higher: 7
Number of evenings with strong wood smoke: 2
Number of evenings with wood smoke before 11 PM: 20
Number of evenings with wood smoke after 11 PM: 16

August was another smoky hell of a month. We had wood smoke 21 out of 31 evenings in our area. It was smoky two-thirds of the evenings. Of the 10 evenings without wood smoke, we had rain before or during peak recreational burning time 5 of them. That makes a total of 5 evenings with no wood smoke and no rain. While 2 out of every 3 evenings had wood smoke, the intensity of the smoke was not as bad as it had been prior months. We had only 2 evenings with wood smoke I rated in the strong category compared to 8 in July.

There were two evenings, Aug. 9th and 12th, where there was a faint odor of something in the air that could not be identified. It is possible it could have been wood smoke from a source distant enough to cause the smoke to be very diluted. Since I could not tell it was wood smoke, I had to count the days as being smoke-free even though the air was not fresh.

Temperatures were not a deterrent to recreational air pollution in August as they were in June. Of the 5 days with no wood smoke and no rain, only Aug. 12th was warm and humid enough to possibly discourage recreational fires. It was 86 degrees and muggy that evening. The weekends of the 22nd and 29th were unseasonably cool to the point where people were likely using fireplaces. Evening temperatures were in the low 60s and below both weekends. The 22nd was the smokiest I have ever seen the city. Wood smoke was everywhere in the northern half of the city, thick enough to form clouds or hang close to the ground like a fog in several locations. From 5:15 PM on Saturday the 29th to 6:30 AM Monday the 31st, there was detectable wood smoke in the air. That made 37 hours of nearly continuous wood smoke with a very faint trace detectable all day long Sunday the 30th.

July 2009

Number of days in month: 31
Number of evenings with noticeable wood smoke in the air: 25
Number of evenings with no wood smoke: 6
Number of days it rained when there was no wood smoke in the evening: 4
Number of evenings with no wood smoke and no rain: 2
Number of evenings of moderately strong wood smoke or higher: 15
Number of evenings with strong wood smoke: 8
Number of evenings with wood smoke before 11 PM: 24
Number of evenings with wood smoke after 11 PM: 15

In July 2009, 25 out of 31 evenings had wood smoke. Out of the 6 days without wood smoke, it rained before or during burning time 4 of them. That makes 2 days in July where we had no wood smoke and no rain to account for its absence. About the only relief we get from wood smoke is the result of rain. That is how bad the wood smoke pollution is in this city. North St. Paul used to be a great place to live 10 years ago. Now it is a nightmare.

It should be quite apparent that North St. Paul, MN, is a living hell. The four city council members are to blame for this. All have been informed of this wood smoke problem and all four have refused to do anything about it. Why do they torture us?

I will tabulate the other months as I can.

June 2009

Number of days in month: 30
Number of evenings with noticeable wood smoke in the air: 18
Number of evenings with no wood smoke: 12
Number of days it rained when there was no wood smoke in the evening: 4
Number of evenings with no wood smoke and no rain: 8
Number of evenings of moderately strong wood smoke or higher: 10
Number of evenings with strong wood smoke: 5
Number of evenings with wood smoke before 11 PM: 17
Number of evenings with wood smoke after 11 PM: 9

We had wood smoke 18 out of 30 evenings in June 2009. We got lucky a few days. A few days of unseasonably cool and hot days helped reduce the wood smoke pollution. Recreational polluters don't burn as much when it gets really hot or is very cool.

The evenings of June 9th and 10th were were free of wood smoke pollution. The evening temperature was 62 degrees on the 9th and 59 degrees on the 10th. On June 17th, another evening without wood smoke, it did not rain but looked like it could rain at any time. Before midnight, lightning was in the sky.

The heat helped us on June 22nd and 23rd. The temperatures at around 5:30 PM were 93 degrees on the 22nd and 87 degrees on the 23rd, with the temperature rising above 87 later in the evening. Sitting around a hot fire isn't as appealing to the pyromaniacs in this town when temperatures get close to 90.

Without weather conditions acting as a deterrent, these five days would have likely been smoky as well, further reducing the few smoke-free days we got this month.

On June 3rd, we had a horrible surprise in the morning. Strong wood smoke at 5 AM lasting at least two hours until I left.

May 2009

Number of days in month: 31
Number of evenings with noticeable wood smoke in the air: 16
Number of evenings with no wood smoke: 15
Number of days it rained when there was no wood smoke in the evening: 7
Number of evenings with no wood smoke and no rain: 8
Number of evenings of moderately strong wood smoke or higher: 8
Number of evenings with strong wood smoke: 5
Number of evenings with wood smoke before 11 PM: 16
Number of evenings with wood smoke after 11 PM: 7

Even springtime is a miserable smoky hell in North St. Paul. As soon as the snow is gone and the temperature warms up enough, people are burning in this town. And if it isn't warm enough for a bonfire, people are still using fireplaces. We don't get much opportunity to smell the lilacs and flowers around here unless it rains.

Weather conditions lessened the number of evenings of smoky air in May 2009. Rain and temperature extremes gave us a few smoke-free days. The evening temperatures fluctuated wildly with temperatures in the 40s such as on the 16th all the way up to around 90 degrees on the 19th and 20th. Recreational bonfires are not as common when the temperature is below 70 degrees or gets close to 90. There was rain before or during burning time seven days when there was no wood smoke. Without the rain, it would likely have been smoky those days as well. We had only eight days this month with no rain and wood smoke.

Friday 08/21/2009 Air Pollution

It rained this morning. By noon the rain stopped for the day.

6:30 PM: Faint wood smoke. I think someone is grilling food using wood as a primary fuel.

7:05 PM: Faint wood smoke continues.

7:45 PM: Wood smoke is gone.

8:45 PM: A faint something is in the air. I can't say that it is wood smoke.

9:30 PM: Faint odor lingers in the air. 64 degrees at this time.

11:00 PM: Faint odor of something lingers. I would guess it is diluted wood smoke from a distant burner. I do not know what else it could be.

When I've been home during the day I've noticed a distinct change in air quality as the day wears on. In the mornings and early afternoons the air is fresh. There is little to no odor of any kind. Sometimes there is a sulfur odor in the early morning from the industrial section of town. But when that isn't present you smell nothing. Starting around 4 PM you can often smell something in the air. You can't identify it, but it is there.

The cool temperature and the televised Vikings football scrimmage are likely the reasons for the low level of wood smoke this evening. The recreational burners found something else to do besides burning wood. Good for them. And us.

Midnight: Light wood smoke at this time. I noticed a faint trace of wood smoke in the house. That is what I get for not closing the windows. You can't escape wood smoke in this town.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Thursday 08/20/2009 Air Pollution

5:00 PM: No wood smoke. Light rain at this time. Cool, 65 degrees. It rained intermittently most of the day.

6:15 PM: No wood smoke. Still raining. Pouring rain at this time. We will likely have another cool summer evening without wood smoke. It is gloomy and damp. I will gladly take the gloom and rain over smoky air. We may even sleep with the windows open tonight. I opened the windows before bed last night and we woke up to a nice cool house in the morning. Sleeping with the windows open in this city is impossible most of the time.

No wood smoke this evening. Nothing in the air at all. Intermittent rain most of the evening made conditions impossible for bonfires. We had wonderfully fresh air all night long!

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Wednesday 08/19/2009 Air Pollution

9:15 PM: No wood smoke where we are yet this evening. Cool, 68 degrees, a pleasant evening. We had heavy rain late in the morning through 3 or 4 PM. The ground is a little damp still. There was a possible tornado in Minneapolis this afternoon around 2 PM. Nothing like that here.

Midnight: No wood smoke yet. It is raining again at this time.

Thanks to the rain we had an enjoyable cool summer evening without wood smoke.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Tuesday 08/18/2009 Air Pollution

I never have a problem finding wood smoke in this city when it isn't raining. Recreational burning has gotten way out of hand. Somebody is always burning in this city.

10:00 PM: No wood smoke where we are yet this evening. It isn't fresh air, but we'll take it over the smoky air we had last night at this time. 72 degrees now. 78 degrees at 6 PM. This was a beautiful smoke-free summer evening. Some residents of this city are not so lucky.

Around 8:45 PM I went for a little cruise around the northern half of the city. I did not do a thorough check of every street looking for wood smoke. I went up and down all the streets south of the lake and down to Tower Park. I found no wood smoke in these areas. This could be the first time I have not encountered wood smoke over by Tower Park on a nice evening this year.

I headed down 19th by another frequent burner's house on the corner of 19th & 1st. He wasn't burning. I headed up Chippewa and found my first area of wood smoke at Navajo & Chippewa. It was faintly smoky at Chippewa & Shawnee. The wood smoke was strong at Navajo & Chippewa. There is a guy on the northwest corner of that intersection who burned a lot last year. I haven't seen him burn at all this year, but I haven't been in that area much. It was very smoky right in front of his house. I remember last year on a beautiful summer evening when he and his next door neighbor to the west both had bonfires in their front yards going at the same time. Double the pollution. They both had Jan Walczak campaign signs in their yards last Fall.

I headed down Navajo to McKnight. The wood smoke was weakening all the way down. I headed south to Shawnee. Nothing at that street and McKnight. I could smell faint wood smoke at Apache & Shawnee. I headed down Apache then back up Delaware. Nothing until I got back to Shawnee. Light wood smoke at Delaware & Shawnee.

I then headed up into Maplewood. Smoky on Standridge. I saw a bonfire in the backyard of a house. Maplewood was supposed to be looking at banning recreational burning. The city council must have chickened out. Shame on them.

I headed back into North St. Paul. I encountered a huge cloud of wood smoke at the corner of Shawnee & 2nd. It was very smoky at that intersection. The cloud of wood smoke was heaviest in the front yard of the home on the northwest corner. Could this be the source of the wood smoke at Navajo & Chippewa? There isn't much of a breeze this evening. I could not locate the burner. 72 degrees is too warm for a fireplace. It had to be a recreational fire. I spent no more than 10 - 15 seconds in that cloud and my clothes reeked of wood smoke! When I got back home I had to shower and put my clothes in a plastic bag because they smelled so badly of wood smoke. I have sympathy for the poor souls who live near that intersection. I hope they didn't have their windows open. If my clothes reeked of wood smoke after only a few seconds, imagine what their houses must smell like inside.

If you happen to be one of the many people who don't like breathing wood smoke all the time, you can pin the blame on the city council. They are the reason you have to breathe smoky air. They have refused to do anything about this problem.

10:30 PM: Still no wood smoke. We may get lucky tonight. I have my fingers crossed.

Midnight: Still no wood smoke. We did get lucky. We had a beautiful evening without wood smoke!

Monday 08/17/2009 Air Pollution

It was another beautiful, cool summer evening ruined by wood smoke in North St. Paul, MN.

5:30 PM: No wood smoke. Mostly cloudy, 79 degrees, a terrific evening to spend some time outside.

8:00 PM: No wood smoke yet. Spent some time relaxing outdoors. We get four months of good weather per year. Got to enjoy it while you can and before the daily wood smoke pollution starts.

9:00 PM: Light wood smoke. It is getting smoky. This is normal. It's 75 degrees at this time. It would be nice to leave the windows open tonight when we go to bed. But we can't! The air is filled with the stench of wood smoke!

10:15 PM: Light wood smoke continues. The burner isn't near us. Wood smoke can travel a half-mile or more. It could be someone blocks away smoking up the air.

10:45 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. It has gotten smokier. Do you like smelling wood smoke when you are lying in bed?

11:15 PM: Faint trace of wood smoke remains.

11:45 PM: Wood smoke mostly gone. I do not know if there was any wood smoke after this time.

It was 57 degrees when I woke up this morning. It is terrible that we can't sleep with the windows open to enjoy the cool air. We have no choice in this polluted city.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Sunday 08/16/2009 Air Pollution

6:30 PM: No wood smoke yet. There will be. There always is in this polluted city.

8:00 PM: No wood smoke. 75 degrees with some sun. A beautiful summer evening.

10:00 PM: No wood smoke.

Midnight: No wood smoke.

I'll be darned. There was no wood smoke where we are and no rain to explain its absence. Every day should be like this. We shouldn't have to fight to be able to breathe in this city. But thanks to the four members of the city council who support wood smoke, we have to.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Saturday 08/15/2009 Air Pollution

11:10 AM: Somebody is burning grass. The stench of grass smoke is blowing in from a distance. More air pollution in North St. Paul.

1:50 PM: More grass smoke.

There was no wood smoke this evening. A few drops of rain fell around 6:15 PM. By 8:30 PM the rain was pouring down. It rained intermittently all evening with a thunderstorm late.

Had it not been for the rain, this would have been another miserable smoky hell of an evening.

Friday 08/14/2009 Air Pollution

More wood smoke in North St. Paul, MN.

7:00 PM: No wood smoke. 89 degrees with some humidity. A gorgeous summer evening.

9:00 PM: No wood smoke yet.

10:15 PM: Faint wood smoke blowing in from the south. 82 degrees and breezy. It's very nice outside except for the wood smoke.

11:15 PM: Light wood smoke. It's getting smokier.

11:30 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. Getting smokier. This was the last check of the evening.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Thursday 08/13/2009 Air Pollution

5:00 PM: No wood smoke. Cloudy, few drops of rain fell. 75 degrees and humid.

7:30 PM: No wood smoke yet. 76 degrees, not as humid as before. Clouds are gone. It's sunny.

8:30 PM: No wood smoke.

9:30 PM: A faint odor of something is in the air. I cannot tell what it is.

10:15 PM: Moderate wood smoke. It is very smoky outside. A minute outdoors will leave your clothes reeking of wood smoke. After a few days without wood smoke, it has returned with a vengeance.

11:05 PM: Very faint wood smoke remains.

Midnight: Wood smoke is gone.

Wednesday 08/12/2009 Air Pollution

6:00 PM: No wood smoke. 86 degrees, sunny and humid.

10:00 PM: No wood smoke yet this evening.

11:30 PM: Woke up. Faint odor of something in the air. I can't identify it. It doesn't smell like wood smoke. If there is a distant burner the smoke could be diluted enough by the time it reaches us to not be able to determine what it is.

This evening will count as another without wood smoke where we are. The air wasn't fresh, but I can't say there was wood smoke.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Tuesday 08/11/2009 Air Pollution

10:00 PM: No wood smoke yet where we are. We spent time outside this evening enjoying the wonderful fresh air. 74 degrees and nice at this time.

I had to run somewhere before 9 PM. On my way back I cruised through a few neighborhoods. I did not do a thorough check of the northern half of the city. I only did a quick cruise through a few spots. There was no wood smoke where we are, but there was in three other places.
  • Navajo & Helen: Faint wood smoke in a small isolated area near here. I went around to the other side of the block and detected very faint wood smoke on Lake Blvd. I could not locate the burner.
  • 14th & Helen: A house four or five houses east of Helen on the south side of the street was having a smoky bonfire in the backyard. It is the house having its siding redone. I could smell the wood smoke more than a block away.
  • 14th & 2nd St. N.: Another smoky night by Tower Park. It has been smoky over there almost every time I've been in that area this year. A house four or five houses east of 2nd St. N. was having a smoky recreational fire. The fire was visible from the road. I had not been able to locate any burners in this area previously. I found one now. There may be others.
Pay your taxes. Breathe smoky air. No fresh air for you!

11:00 PM: No wood smoke.

Midnight: No wood smoke.

There was not a trace of wood smoke in our neighborhood this evening. Most of the time when we get an evening without wood smoke it is the result of rain. There was no rain to explain the absence of wood smoke pollution tonight. Miracles do happen.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Monday 08/10/2009 Air Pollution

8:30 PM: No wood smoke yet. Brief rain shower around 5:45 PM. 76 degrees and mostly cloudy at this time.

9:00 PM: No wood smoke. Going to bed.

11:00 PM: Woke up. No wood smoke.

Midnight: Woke up again shortly after midnight. The air was clear.

There was a little rain early in the evening that may be why there was no wood smoke. Fresh air is so nice and so rare in this city.

Sunday 08/09/2009 Air Pollution

8:00 PM: No wood smoke yet. 80 degrees. A beautiful summer evening.

9:00 PM: A faint odor is in the air. I can't tell what it is. It doesn't smell like wood smoke. If it is wood smoke, it is from a far away burner.

10:00 PM: Faint odor of something remains in the air. 75 degrees.

11:00 PM: Faint odor of something remains.

This will count as a day without wood smoke. It is very rare to have a nice evening without wood smoke.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Particle pollution

An article appeared in the Pioneer Press newspaper today about the health hazards of particle pollution. The article was written by Drs. Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz. You may have seen Dr. Oz on Oprah Winfrey's talk show as he is one of her favorite medical authorities.

Particle pollution

When people discuss particle pollution, they should also mention that it comes from wood smoke from recreational fires. The article mentions woodstoves, but it does not mention bonfires. People seem to think that air pollution from recreational bonfires is harmless, but it is not. The pollution from recreational fires is just as harmful as that coming from an industrial smokestack.

Particle pollution from wood smoke is a serious health concern that city council members Jan Walczak, Bob Bruton, Terry Furlong, and Dave Zick have ignored. We will never know if the city council members have killed anyone as a result of their support for recreational burning and the air pollution it generates. If I were them, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. My parents raised me to have a conscience. We cannot say the same about the city council members. As the citizens of North St. Paul young and old suffer from wood smoke so strong it burns sinuses, the city council members sit back and do nothing.

Saturday 08/08/2009 Air Pollution

It is hot and humid today. It feels like a sauna outside. The temperature at 3:30 PM was 89 degrees measured at North High School. If you want to know the current local temperature, wind, and weather forecast, stop by this blog and see it on the Weatherbug widget on the right. We may have more thunderstorms in the area later this evening. High heat and humidity deters recreational bonfires. I do not expect many fires tonight. But you never know in this city.

6:20 PM: I had to step outside to retrieve an item. Faint wood smoke at this time. 85 degrees and humid. Wood smoke this early with the mugginess makes me suspect that someone is grilling meat using wood for fuel.

6:45 PM: No wood smoke.

7:30 PM: No wood smoke.

8:53 PM: Storm sirens sounding. Severe storms are in the area. It rained later in the evening.

There was no more wood smoke this evening because of the storm.

Friday 08/07/2009 Air Pollution

There was no wood smoke today. Not even a trace. It rained all morning leaving the ground soaking wet. At 5:30 PM it was misting with a temperature of 68 degrees. It drizzled briefly a short while later. Before 11 PM there was lightning in the sky. By midnight it was raining again.

The only relief we get from the horrible wood smoke pollution in this city is when it rains.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Thursday 08/06/2009 Air Pollution

2:30 AM: Woke up. On my way back to bed I checked the air. Faint wood smoke lingers.

Would you like to smell wood smoke lying in bed at 2:30 AM in the middle of the week? If you say yes, you would love North St. Paul, MN.

8:30 PM: No wood smoke yet. There will be. There always is. 74 degrees and cloudy.

9:15 PM: Faint trace of wood smoke. It's getting smoky. I am updating this post Friday morning. I said at 8:30 PM it would be smoky and it was. It always is in North St. Paul. What did we do to deserve smoky air every day?

10:00 PM: Faint to light wood smoke. Must be from a distant burner. It is not heavy, but you still don't want to smell that in your bedroom when you are trying to go to sleep. Going to bed with the windows closed as always.

11:00 PM: Light wood smoke. Had to get out of bed. It must be from a distant burner. Every day in this town. Every day.

I woke up again and checked the air on my way back to bed at 1:35 AM. The air was fresh and clear at the time.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Wednesday 08/05/2009 Air Pollution

12:02 AM: Strong wood smoke continues. Smells like burning grass, too. Would you want to live in a city like this?

There are four people who support air pollution who have refused to do anything about this problem even though I've been complaining about it since May 2008. Those people are city council members Jan Walczak, Bob Bruton, Terry Furlong, and Dave Zick. If you have to breathe smoky air in North St. Paul, you can blame those four. Wood smoke this heavy at midnight is no more unpleasant than it is at 7 PM. We endure it all the time. We endure it because of those four unhelpful souls.

12:25 AM: Strong horrible smelling wood and possible grass smoke continues. I am glad we close the windows before bed every evening. You don't have a choice in this ****** up city.

7:45 PM: No wood smoke yet. Something is in the air. I can't tell what it is. It is very faint.

9:00 PM: No wood smoke yet. Going to bed.

10:30 PM: Woke up. Checked the air on my way back to bed. Faint to light wood smoke at this time. You cannot escape wood smoke in this town. It is terrible. It was still faintly smoky at 2:30 AM.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Tuesday 08/04/2009 Air Pollution

It's National Night Out this evening.

7:00 PM: No wood smoke yet. It is a gorgeous summer evening. 75 degrees, partly cloudy, with a nice breeze. I plan on spending a couple hours outside. I hope my evening relaxation out of doors isn't ruined by wood smoke as it usually is. We don't have much time left until Fall's cooler temperatures arrive. Then we get to breathe the smoke from burning leaves!

10:30 PM: No wood smoke yet. Marvelous! Going to bed.....with the windows closed.

11:45 PM: Strong wood smoke. Somebody is burning wood. It reeks! Very heavy wood smoke outside. How many of my poor neighbors left their windows open and woke up to that stench? I am pretty sure I know who is doing it. They are not being sneaky enough this night.

Living in North St. Paul is a nightmare.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Monday 08/03/2009 Air Pollution

More wood smoke this evening.

4:45 PM: Faint wood smoke. It's starting early this evening. 82 degrees, sunny, another gorgeous summer day ruined by wood smoke.

5:15 PM: Faint to light wood smoke.

5:45 PM: Faint wood smoke.

6:10 PM: Faint wood smoke continues.

7:00 PM: Trace of wood smoke lingers.

8:00 PM: No wood smoke! I'm sure there will be more as the recreational bonfires start.

9:00 PM: No wood smoke.

10:00 PM: No wood smoke. This was the last air quality check of the evening. It is common for fires to start at 11 PM or later. I woke up around 3:30 AM and the air was clear.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Sunday 08/02/2009 Air Pollution

3:00 AM: The air reeks of wood smoke and burnt wood. I woke up around this time and hoped to open the windows to cool down this stuffy house. The air is so polluted -- as usual -- we can't! We are prisoners in our own home at three in the morning! This city is a nightmare!

5:00 AM: Faint trace of burnt wood odor lingers in the air. That makes over 11 hours of constant foul polluted air. This is normal in North St. Paul, MN. This is how the city council forces us to live.

7:00 AM: Air is fresh. Time to finally open the windows after having them closed for the past 13 hours.

On a side note, this blog got 497 unique visitors last month. This isn't a record but it isn't bad. People doing broad searches for "city of North St. Paul" and "North St. Paul, MN" are finding this blog ranked in the third and fourth positions on the Google search engine. People searching for real estate and homes for sale are finding this blog, too. Anyone thinking about plunking down $175,000 - $200,000 or more for a house should know how terribly polluted the air is in this city. Imagine paying over $2,000 a year in property taxes to breathe smoky, polluted air every day. We even got a visitor for the search "North St. Paul a good place to live?". The answer to that question is: No, this city is not a good place to live. It is a terrible place to live because of the daily smoke pollution the city council forces us to endure. It used to be a great place to live 10 years ago when nobody burned wood. These days, it is rare to have more than two or three days a month without wood smoke in the evenings. Usually, you have to close your windows and leave them closed all night long because the wood smoke pollution is so heavy.

North St. Paul could become a good place to live again if the city council ever gets rid of this wood smoke pollution. Until then, my advice to anybody considering purchasing a home here is to avoid this city like the polluted nightmare that it is. Moving to North St. Paul could be the biggest mistake you ever make. Consider yourself warned by someone who knows.

4:30 PM: Intermittent faint wood smoke coming from a distance. Cloudy, 80 degrees, spotty rain showers moving in.

5:15 PM: Very faint wood smoke. You can detect a trace of wood smoke if the wind is right.

7:00 PM: No wood smoke.

8:00 PM: No wood smoke. It rained briefly between 7 PM and this time.

9:30 PM: No wood smoke. Last check of the evening. I woke up again around 3 AM to see the ground was wet. It rained again. The air at 3 AM was free of wood smoke. Flickers of lightning filled the sky.

Thanks to the rain we enjoyed an evening with very little wood smoke.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Saturday 08/01/2009 Air Pollution

11:45 AM: Faint grass smoke. I smelled it coming in the window. It did not last long. 66 degrees and windy.

12:45 PM: More faint grass smoke. It did not last long. I leave grass clippings on the lawn when I mow. It's good for the grass. Why does anyone need to burn grass in this day in age? I don't like grass smoke. But it is less offensive to me than wood smoke. Grass burns up quickly. Wood can smolder for many hours.

4:10 PM: Faint intermittent wood or grass smoke on the wind. It smells a little like wood, a little like grass. It didn't last more than 20 minutes. 71 degrees and windy.

5:45 PM: Faint wood smoke. Jerk neighbor is grilling with wood. He leaves it smoldering for hours.

6:30 PM: Light wood smoke.

7:45 PM: Faint to light wood smoke.

8:15 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke.

9:00 PM: Moderate wood smoke. I can see smoke rising from his yard. That jerk is smoking up everything and it's perfectly legal. 67 degrees. Another beautiful summer evening ruined by wood smoke! I'm sure others will start burning before the night is through.

9:45 PM: Strong wood smoke continues. This city is hell on earth! Going to bed with the windows closed -- by necessity!

11:00 PM: Woke up. Strong wood smoke continues. No surprises. The only surprise would be if there wasn't any wood smoke.

Emails I received

I got a couple emails this week. One was from city manager Wally Wysopal asking me to call him so he can assist me in a "productive manner". I don't know if Wally reads this blog, but if he does I would like to thank him for contacting me. There is nothing he can do to help. City ordinance allows recreational burning from 4 PM - 11 PM all seven days of the week. As long as burning and the pollution that it generates is allowed, the air is going to continue to be smoky almost every evening. It will continue to get worse every year, too, as more people hop on the recreational air pollution bandwagon. Only the city council can provide relief from this terrible wood smoke pollution. Only they have the power to restrict it or end it completely (my preference).

If I wanted to be a jerk, I could get some wood and burn every day from 4:30 - 11:00 PM and it would be entirely legal to do so. It is my right under the existing city ordinance. It is tempting to do that to seek requital against the three or four burners on my block. But everyone around me, including some elderly neighbors who are in the final years of their lives and in declining health, would suffer. People blocks downwind would suffer as well. I cannot in good conscience assault my innocent neighbors with wood smoke pollution in an act of revenge against the few burners around us. The city council has no such conscience. Nice guys do finish last, unfortunately.

I got another email from a regular Pennsylvania reader who is "addicted" to this blog. Hello in Pennsylvania! I'm glad you enjoy our tales of woe from this polluted nightmare of a city. We've had one day without wood smoke out of the past eight days. That's about as good as it gets around here. It is Saturday and I'm sure it will be another smoky evening. I wish you the best of luck in your battle against wood smoke pollution out there. Breathing smoky air every day is misery. People who aren't bombarded with wood smoke pollution every day won't understand how it destroys the quality of life. There is nothing trivial about air pollution so bad it makes your sinuses burn.

Friday 07/31/2009 Air Pollution

Don't be shocked when I tell you this. It was another smoky evening in North St. Paul, MN. It was until the rain started.

6:00 PM: No wood smoke. 78 degrees, partly cloudy, a breezy and beautiful summer evening. A nice evening to have the windows open.

7:00 PM: No wood smoke.

8:00 PM: No wood smoke.

8:30 PM: Light wood smoke. The air is always polluted in the evenings. You can't avoid it in this town.

9:00 PM: Light wood smoke. I went to bed at this time.

10:30 - 11:00 PM: Got up somewhere around this time. The air was lightly smoky still. Rain started soon after, preventing the air from getting too smoky. I got up again around 3:00 AM. The air was cool and fresh. Time to open the windows.