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, November 30, 2009

Monday 11/30/2009 Air Pollution

7:00 AM: No wood smoke. Fresh air!

11:00 AM: No wood smoke. I'm home today.

2:00 PM: No wood smoke.

4:15 PM: No wood smoke. 42 degrees.

5:15 PM: No wood smoke. 44 degrees at North High School.

This fresh air is wonderful! It will not last.

6:30 PM: No wood smoke.

8:00 PM: Faint to light wood smoke.

10:15 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. Nobody will have any difficultly smelling that wood smoke. Last check of the evening.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Sunday 11/29/2009 Air Pollution

7:00 AM: Faint wood smoke in the air. The air in North St. Paul stinks again. There is nothing like opening the door to retrieve the paper and smelling smoky air.

I have said many times that wood smoke is to be expected in the winter. But that does not mean we have to like it.

11:00 AM: Faint wood smoke continues.

1:00 PM: Very faint wood smoke in the air.

2:30 PM: No real wood smoke at this time. The air is fresh for a change. It will not last long. 37 degrees and cloudy.

4:00 PM: No wood smoke. Fresh air continues.

5:00 PM: Faint to light wood smoke.

7:30 PM: Very faint trace of wood smoke in the air. 36 degrees.

9:45 PM: Very faint trace of wood smoke continues.

11:30 PM: Faint wood smoke. Last check of the evening.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Saturday 11/28/2009 Air Pollution

Burning wood and some burning leaves. The city of North St. Paul should sell air freshener spray that smells like the air in this city. I know it would be a big seller......

6:00 AM: Very faint stale smelling wood smoke in the air. Have you ever smelled the bottom of an ash tray? This is what the air smells like except it is wood. The air smells like the bottom of a fireplace.

8:30 AM: Faint wood smoke. A little stronger than before.

10:30 AM: Very faint wood smoke continues. We did some shopping over by Maplewood Mall. You could smell a tiny bit of wood smoke over there, too. I guess it is smoky everywhere this time of year.

People concerned about the environment should be screaming at the top of their lungs about wood smoke pollution. Everybody around here has natural gas. There is no need to burn wood and pollute the air for heat. Most fireplace use, I think, is for recreational purposes and not for home heating. Last year, the colder it got the less smoky the air was.

12:55 PM: Faint leaf smoke on the breeze. Somebody somewhere is burning the last of their autumn leaves.

2:40 PM: Very faint trace of some kind of smokiness in the air. I can hardly smell it but enough to know it isn't fresh air.

4:35 PM: Light leaf smoke. Some jackass is burning leaves. I can see smoke rising from a backyard about a block away. They are probably the culprit.

6:00 PM: Light wood smoke. I did not record the temperature. I think it was in the upper 30s.

8:00 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. It's getting smokier.

10:00 PM: Light wood smoke. Last check of the evening.

The air was smoky the next morning when I woke.

Friday 11/27/2009 Air Pollution

1:00 PM: Moderate wood smoke. It's really smoky outside. It smells terrible. No wood smoke before this time. 35 degrees, sunny.

3:00 PM: Light wood smoke.

4:15 PM: Moderate wood smoke. Very smoky outside. Can't breathe the polluted air!

7:00 PM: Moderate to strong wood smoke. Even smokier than before. This air is unfit for human consumption! 36 degrees at this time.

10:00 PM: Light wood smoke. Last check of the evening.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Thursday 11/26/2009 Air Pollution

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you like your turkey smoked, because wood smoke is in the air early today.

6:00 AM: Fresh air.

10:00 AM: Light to moderate wood smoke. It smells horrible. 32 degrees at this time. I opened the bathroom window after taking a long, warm bath and had to close it immediately because the air reeks of burning wood. We are prisoners in our home again. Why does everybody have to breathe smoky air because one person feels the need to have a fireplace going? How is it fair that hundreds or thousands have to breathe smoky air because one person can't make it through the day without burning wood?

We are not going to be in North St. Paul for Thanksgiving dinner. Lucky us! If we were cooking, the kitchen would get hot and the window would have to be opened to vent heat and humidity and we would be stuck breathing smoky air inside our home.

I will give thanks today that I won't be having Thanksgiving dinner in North St. Paul.

11:15 AM: No real wood smoke at this time. Must be a shift in wind direction.

1:00 PM: Very faint wood smoke.

6:00 PM: Light to moderate stinky wood smoke. 32 degrees.

8:00 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke continues. Last check of the evening.

We expect wood smoke in the winter. We don't like it. But we expect it. My real complaint is the smoky air in the spring, summer, and fall. That's when we have the windows open.

Wednesday 11/25/2009 Air Pollution

4:00 PM: No smoke. 39 degrees, drizzling rain.

7:15 PM: No wood smoke yet. There will be. There always is.

8:23 PM: Faint wood smoke on breeze. It's a little windy now. This was the last check of the evening.

Tuesday 11/24/2009 Air Pollution

Yes, the air is smoky again this evening.

5:00 PM: Light wood smoke. 50 degrees, cloudy.

6:00 PM: Very faint trace of wood smoke in the air.

8:00 PM: No real wood smoke. Last check of the evening.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

MPCA says to avoid burning wood

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency issued a pollution alert for the Twin Cities yesterday. The air quality level is just below that of unhealthy for sensitive people. The MPCA also says to avoid burning wood.

Star Tribune

Pioneer Press

Avoid burning wood in North Saint Paul? This is the most polluted city in the world and the four city council members encourage it. The air is smoky almost every evening. The air is smokier in the summer than it is in the winter in this town. We had 25 out of 31 evenings of smoky air in July. We had many instances of smoky air from burning leaves this fall as well, as recently as this past Sunday. The MPCA should be issuing air pollution alerts every day in this town.

When I contacted the MPCA about the horrible wood smoke pollution in this town they said they couldn't do anything about it.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Monday 11/23/2009 Air Pollution

5:00 PM: Light wood smoke. 50 degrees at this time.

5:55 PM: Very faint trace of wood smoke in the air. The wind must have shifted direction.

8:00 PM: No real wood smoke. Last check of the evening. When I woke for the first time at 3 AM the air was fresh.

Sunday 11/22/2009 Air Pollution

6:00 AM: Faint wood smoke in the air.

8:00 AM: Faint wood smoke continues.

12:00 PM: Moderate burning leaves and possibly wood smoke. I don't know what all is being burned, but it smells terrible.

2:00 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke varying in intensity. There isn't much of a breeze. I could not determine a direction. It's potent wood smoke.

4:30 PM: Light to moderate varying wood smoke continues. It is 57 degrees at this time. Does anyone really need to have a fireplace going when it is 57 degrees outside? Our furnace has not come on all day. Today's high was 2 degrees shy of the record.

7:00 PM: No real wood smoke. A very faint trace of something lingers in the air.

11:30 PM: No wood smoke.

Saturday 11/21/2009 Air Pollution

5:45 PM: Light to moderate stinky wood smoke. Smells terrible.

8:00 PM: Moderate wood smoke. It's very smoky outside. Last check of the evening.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Friday 11/20/2009 Air Pollution

8:00 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke at this time. It wouldn't be North Saint Paul without smoky air. 45 degrees.

Midnight: Light wood smoke continues. 39 degrees.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Thursday 11/19/2009 Air Pollution

6:00 AM: Faint wood smoke in the air at this time. Light rain at this time. 42 degrees.

7:00 AM: Faint wood smoke continues. Around this time I passed by Margaret & 19th. It was smoky over there.

5:00 PM: No wood smoke. 46 degrees.

8:30 PM: Light wood smoke. The air is always smoky in this town. 47 degrees.

11:00 PM: Very faint wood smoke remains.

Wednesday 11/18/2009 Air Pollution

4:00 PM: No smoke. 50 degrees about.

11:00 PM: Light wood smoke. I fell asleep early this evening and did not wake until around this time. I was not surprised to find smoky air. If the air is not smoky, that is what surprises us.

Midnight: No real wood smoke at this time.

Tuesday 11/17/2009 Air Pollution

Late this afternoon we saw a huge cloud of smoke coming from a home on the eastern edge of Silver Lake. It was leaf smoke. The jackass was burning leaves. We could smell the smoke a quarter of a mile away at Margaret Street. It was strong. It smelled terrible.

6:00 PM: No smoke where we live. 47 degrees.

6:45 PM: Light wood smoke.

9:45 PM: No smoke.

11:45 PM: Very faint trace of wood smoke in the air.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Monday 11/16/2009 Air Pollution

1:00 AM: Light wood smoke.

4:25 AM: Faint wood smoke.

6:13 PM: Very faint trace of some type of smoke is in the air. I can tolerate this.

9:45 PM: Moderate wood smoke. It's very smoky outside. Sickeningly smoky. Last check of the evening.

Sunday 11/15/2009 Air Pollution

12:45 AM: Moderate to strong wood smoke. Very smoky outside. You do not want to breathe this horrible polluted air.

3:00 AM: Moderate wood smoke.

5:00 AM: Faint to light wood smoke.

4:45 PM: Light wood smoke.

6:45 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. 42 degrees at this time.

11:00 PM: Light wood smoke.

The air was faintly smoky at 4:25 AM the next morning.

Saturday 11/14/2009 Air Pollution

If you love the smell of burning leaves and burning wood you are in luck. We've got plenty of it.

2:00 PM: Faint leaf smoke at this time. I put my leaves and other yard waste in the yard waste bin. Some burn it.

2:30 PM: Faint leaf smoke continues. The burner must be a few blocks away.

3:00 PM: Faint leaf smoke continues.

3:15 PM: Light to moderate leaf and some other horrible smelling smoke, possibly wood. The air absolutely reeks of burning leaves or wood and whatever else the pyromaniacs in this messed up town can get their hands on.

4:45 PM: Moderately strong stinky wood smoke. The air is foul. The air reeks. You can't smell anything but that horrible stinky wood smoke.

6:45 PM: Moderate to strong wood smoke. It is going to be a polluted hell of an evening in this town.

After spending most of the day working around the house, I fell asleep early. I fell asleep shortly after the last check of the air at 6:45 PM and did not wake until around 12:45 AM. At 12:45 AM there was moderate to strong wood smoke in the air.

This city is a horrible place to live.

Friday 11/13/2009 Air Pollution

4:00 PM: No smoke. 50 degrees, cloudy, rain is in the forecast.

6:45 PM: No smoke. Rain drizzle at this time. The air has that wonderful rain smell. I took several deep breaths of that wonderful fresh air because it will not last. North St. Paul, MN, is the most polluted city in the world.

9:00 PM: Faint wood smoke at this time.

10:45 PM: Light wood smoke at this time.

11:45 PM: Faint wood smoke.

Faint wood smoke lingered in the air until after 4:15 AM.

Thursday 11/12/2009 Air Pollution

There was not a trace of any type of smoke this evening. 53 degrees and windy at 6 PM. A second evening of fresh air!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Wednesday 11/11/2009 Air Pollution

There was no wood or leaf smoke this evening. It was 52 degrees at 8 PM, no rain. It was a nice and all too rare evening of fresh air in North St. Paul, Minnesota.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Tuesday 11/10/2009 Air Pollution

12:40 AM: Moderate to strong wood smoke. Really smoky out there. Horrible stench of burning wood fills every breath. I checked the air on my way back to bed.

2:38 AM: Moderate to strong wood smoke continues.

4 AM: Moderate wood smoke continues. It is really smoky considering it is not that cold outside.

5:15 PM: No smoke. 59 degrees at this time. It was another nice, sunny day.

6:40 PM: No smoke.

8:00 PM: No smoke.

10:30 PM: Faint wood smoke is in the air. 49 degrees at this time.

Monday 11/09/2009 Air Pollution

6:40 PM: No smoke. 55 degrees. It got above 60 degrees today, a very nice day.

9:11 PM: Very faint smokiness of some type is in the air.

10:50 PM: Light wood smoke.

The air was smoky all night long. Very smoky at 4 AM.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Sunday 11/08/2009 Air Pollution

Would you believe the air is filled with smoke from burning leaves? This is to be expected in the most polluted city in the world. What would be abnormal is if the air wasn't smoky on such a nice Fall day.

12:50 PM: Light leaf smoke. Somebody upwind is burning leaves. I do not know who is doing it. I see no smoke from here. I smelled the smoke coming in the window. I shut the few open windows around the house. 64 degrees at this time measured at North High School.

1:20 PM: Faint leaf smoke continues.

1:30 PM: No smoke of any kind at this time. Has the burning ceased or a change in wind direction?

2:25 PM: Faint leaf smoke at this time. Mostly cloudy. Dark rain clouds are to the northwest.

3:15 PM: Faint leaf smoke.

3:50 PM: Light to moderate leaf smoke. Yard waste smoke does not often get this heavy. The burner cannot be far.

4:45 PM: Light to moderate leaf smoke.

5:00 PM: Very faint leaf smoke.

5:45 PM: No smoke of any kind at this time. I expect heavy wood smoke tonight. 62 degrees.

5:55 PM: Very faint smoke of some kind on the breeze. I cannot say what type of smoke it is.

6:37 PM: No smoke of any kind.

7:30 PM: Light wood smoke.

8:45 PM: Faint wood smoke.

9:45 PM: Very faint trace of some type of smoke.

Midnight: Very faint trace of some type of smoke continues.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Saturday 11/07/2009 Air Pollution

1:00 PM: No leaf smoke yet. There will be. 61 degrees, sunny, very nice for November.

4:25 PM: Light to moderate leaf smoke. It smells like burning leaves and paper. 63 degrees at this time. I am upset because I wanted to open the windows to air out dinner odors. I can't because the air is smoky. The house can smell like onions or burning leaves and paper. We'll stick with the onions.

4:50 PM: Light to moderate leaf and paper or wood smoke continues. I can also smell exhaust from someone's leaf blower I hear running.

This city is a nightmare.

5:15 PM: Light to moderate leaf and some other type of smoke continues.

6:10 PM: Moderate wood and some other type of smoke.

7:15 PM: Strong wood smoke. It is smoky as hell outside! Horrible city! Do not buy a house here. You will regret it!

8:15 PM: Moderate to strong wood smoke continues.

9:00 PM: Strong wood smoke continues. I stuck my head out the door for a second to check the air and when I entered the kitchen again 15 minutes later I could still smell the wood smoke I let in. The air in North St. Paul is toxic poison.

11:40 PM: Moderate to strong wood smoke continues. This was the last check of the evening.

Friday 11/06/2009 Air Pollution

There was something stinky in the air this evening.

5:15 PM: No smoke. Something stinks outside. Almost like a very light manure smell. 62 degrees, a very nice day today.

9:00 PM: No smoke of any kind yet. That stinky smell from earlier is mostly gone.

11:00 PM: No smoke. This was the last check of the evening.

We enjoyed a Friday evening with no wood smoke! I believe this is the second Friday without wood smoke since the start of May.

Thursday 11/05/2009 Air Pollution

5:00 PM: No smoke. 53 degrees, a nice sunny day today.

5:15 PM: Moderately strong stinky smoke that smells like burning leaves, wax, paper, and a little bit of wood. It isn't plain leaves burning. It's a bunch of stuff. Maybe garbage. This horrible stinky smoke did not last long. We live in the worst city in the world!

5:45 PM: No smoke. Air is clear.

7:30 PM: No smoke.

9:45 PM: No smoke. Last check of the evening.

Wednesday 11/04/2009 Air Pollution

5:00 PM: No smoke. 40 degrees, cloudy.

8:00 PM: No smoke.

8:45 PM: Light wood smoke. 35 degrees. Last check of the evening.

Tuesday 11/03/2009 Air Pollution

4:30 PM: No wood or leaf smoke. Light rain at this time, 39 degrees.

5:40 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke.

8:00 PM: Light to moderate stinky wood smoke varying with the wind. The smoke smells horrible! 35 degrees. Last check of the evening.

Monday 11/02/2009 Air Pollution

5:00 PM: No smoke of any kind. 46 degrees.

6:30 PM: No smoke.

8:15 PM: No smoke.

9:00 PM: Very faint wood smoke. Last check of the evening.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Fireplaces suck heat out of the home

For all you fireplace users out there, you may not be heating your home as much as you think you are. Fireplaces send most of the heat up the chimney. As the warm air rises up the chimney, it creates a vacuum which pulls in cold air from outside. The overall effect is negative.

http://www.parade.com/askmarilyn/2009/11/Sundays-Column-11-01-09.html

Sunday 11/01/2009 Air Pollution

More burning leaves in North St. Paul, MN. If people aren't burning wood, they are burning yard waste. Somebody is always burning something in this screwy pyromaniac town. Every day almost someone is burning something and fouling the air.

11:05 AM: Faint leaf smoke. Someone somewhere is burning leaves. I can hear leaf blowers running at this time. 44 degrees and sunny.

12:15 PM: Very faint leaf smoke continues.

3:00 PM: No smoke of any kind. Fresh air! People have probably taken a break from polluting the air to watch the big Vikings-Green Bay Packers game coming on shortly. 55 degrees at this time.

5:50 PM: Moderate leaf and or wood smoke. It does not smell much like wood, but kind of does. It sort of smells like burning leaves, too. Whatever it is, it smells horrible and as strong as it is, the burner must not be more than a block or two away. It's smoky outside. 55 degrees at this time and dark.

7:00 PM: No smoke of any kind. Wonderful fresh air!

11:15 PM: Light wood smoke. I went to sleep early today, after 7 PM. I woke up and checked the air on my way back to bed. When I checked the air again at 2 AM it was fresh.

I considered going on hiatus until April since we are heading into the Winter months and smoky air is expected when it is cold. I am debating continuing this blog because it is smokier in the Summer months than it is in the Winter in the city of North St. Paul. Most people would expect it to be smokier in the Winter than in the summer. But that is not how it is around here. Last Winter, the air was smoky in the first half of the Winter regularly. By the second half of the Winter, wood smoke pollution dropped dramatically. Wood smoke pollution increased in the Spring as the weather warmed enough for people to have bonfires. This past Summer was a miserable smoky hell.

I have formed a theory that people aren't using fireplaces for home heating as much as they are for recreational purposes. I may continue this blog to document the smoky air in the winter to prove that Summer is smokier than Winter. I have not finalized a decision. I'm getting a little tired of trying to remember to check the air every few hours. Documenting the horrible air pollution in North St. Paul is not as fun as you may think.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Saturday 10/31/2009 Air Pollution

Happy smoky Halloween.

3:30 PM: Light to moderate leaf smoke around this time. As strong as the smoke is, the leaf burner must not be far. I looked around outside and did not see any smoke. The smoke lasted about a half hour.

9:00 PM: Light wood smoke at this time.

Midnight: Air is fresh.