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!

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Visitors from all over the world

The number of visitors to this blog increased substantially this month. This North St. Paul wood smoke pollution blog has had visitors from more states than I care to count. I am pleased that people from all over the country are reading about the terrible air pollution in North St. Paul, Minnesota, and how our city council members are responsible for it.

I am most impressed by the number of international visitors. I've had readers from:
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Lithuania
  • Pakistan
  • Canada
  • Sweden
  • Japan
  • Tunisia
  • Germany
  • Australia
  • Spain
  • Brunei
  • Serbia
  • Netherlands
  • Mexico
  • Ukraine
  • France
  • Belgium
  • Kazakhstan
  • India
  • Malaysia
  • Russian Federation
  • Egypt
  • Switzerland
  • Indonesia
  • Singapore
  • United Kingdom
  • Israel
  • Norway
all in the past week. People all over the world are reading about how our four city council members Jan Walczak, Bob Bruton, Terry Furlong, and Dave Zick make us breathe smoky, polluted air all year around.

Wood smoke is expected in the winter. But the air pollution problem in North St. Paul is so bad that wood smoke is far heavier in the summer than it is in the winter. When you should be free to open your windows or sit outside in the spring, summer, and fall, you cannot because the air is too smoky to breathe. But come winter when it gets cold, there is far less wood smoke than during the warm months.

Shame on you city council members for torturing us with polluted air. We deserve better. People all over the planet are reading about you. You should be ashamed.

Wednesday 12/30/2009 Air Pollution

4:00 AM: A faint wood smoke is in the air.

7:15 AM: Faint wood smoke continues. 14 degrees.

4:15 PM: No wood smoke. 21 degrees.

6:00 PM: No wood smoke.

7:00 PM: No wood smoke.

10:15 PM: A very faint trace of some type of smoke is in the air. It is not much, but you can smell it. Last check of the evening.

Tuesday 12/29/2009 Air Pollution

1:30 AM: No wood smoke. Fresh air.

4:40 PM: No wood smoke. 15 degrees.

9:30 PM: Moderate wood smoke. The air reeks of stinky burning wood. Whatever type of wood is burning is producing an awful smelling smoke. It turns your stomach. The odor of the wood smoke is the same as last night and Saturday the 26th. It is probably the same household using a fireplace and they cannot be too far away.

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

Monday 12/28/2009 Air Pollution

1:45 PM: Enjoying the day at home. There was no wood smoke all morning up through this time. 20 degrees.

4:30 PM: No wood smoke. 19 degrees.

7:00 PM: No wood smoke.

9:30 PM: Moderate wood smoke. The air is very smoky. You do not want to breathe the air in North St. Paul right now. All you can smell is really stinky wood smoke. 13 degrees. This was the last check of the evening until 1:30 AM when the air was fresh.

Sunday 12/27/2009 Air Pollution

12:45 AM: Moderate wood smoke continues. The air outside reeks!

9:20 PM: A very faint trace of wood smoke is in the air. I neglected to check the air quality all evening until this time. There was no wood smoke during the daytime hours. 25 degrees.

Midnight: No wood smoke at this time. The air is fresh!

Saturday 12/26/2009 Air Pollution

6:00 PM: No wood smoke.

7:00 PM: No wood smoke. 19 degrees.

9:15 PM: Moderate wood smoke. The air is very smoky with stinky wood smoke. 18 degrees.

Moderate wood smoke continued until after midnight.

Friday 12/25/2009 Air Pollution

Christmas.

3:40 PM: Faint wood smoke. 36 degrees. The snow is melting.

10:45 PM: No wood smoke. There was no wood smoke from about 6 PM to this time. Last check of the evening.

Thursday 12/24/2009 Air Pollution

1:00 AM: Very faint wood smoke is in the air.

There was no wood smoke at 7 AM throughout the daytime hours.

5:15 PM: No wood smoke. 30 degrees.

7:00 PM: Very faint smoke in the air.

8:45 PM: Light wood smoke.

10:25 PM: Faint wood smoke.

11:45 PM: Light wood smoke. Last check of the evening.

Wednesday 12/23/2009 Air Pollution

4:45 PM: Very faint trace of wood smoke is in the air. Starting to snow. Windy, 28 degrees.

7:00 PM: No wood smoke.

8:00 PM: No wood smoke.

9:00 PM: No wood smoke.

11:00 PM: No wood smoke. There was very faint wood smoke in the air at 1 AM.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Tuesday 12/22/2009 Air Pollution

5:30 PM: Very faint trace of some type of smoke in the air. I cannot say with certainty it is wood smoke. But it is either wood smoke or vehicle exhaust. The air in North St. Paul is not fresh.

6:45 PM: No real smokiness in the air. The air is mostly fresh. 26 degrees.

9:00 PM: No wood smoke yet.

10:00 PM: No wood smoke.

11:15 PM: No wood smoke. Last check of the evening.

Monday 12/21/2009 Air Pollution

4:45 PM: No wood smoke. 24 degrees, cloudy.

5:45 PM: Faint wood smoke in the air.

7:15 PM: Faint varying wood smoke in the air.

9:00 PM: Very faint trace of wood smoke. The air is not fresh. You can notice that easily.

11:00 PM: Very faint trace of wood smoke continues. Last check of the evening.

Sunday 12/20/2009 Air Pollution

3:00 PM: Very faint wood smoke in the air. 23 degrees.

5:00 PM: No wood smoke.

7:30 PM: Light wood smoke.

10:00 PM: No real wood smoke in the air at this time. Last check of the evening.

Saturday 12/19/2009 Air Pollution

12:10 AM: Very faint wood smoke in the air.

There was no wood smoke from the time I woke up until well into the afternoon.

5:45 PM: Very faint trace of wood smoke in the air. You can hardly smell it but just enough to know it is present. 20 degrees.

8:00 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. The air is pretty smoky. 22 degrees.

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

Friday, December 18, 2009

Friday 12/18/2009 Air Pollution

12:23 AM: Light wood smoke. I checked the air on my way back to bed. As of 11 PM there was no wood smoke. Somebody waited a long time to start a fireplace.

5:00 AM: No wood smoke.

I was home today. There was no wood smoke all day.

4:15 PM: No wood smoke. 26 degrees.

5:45 PM: No wood smoke.

7:20 PM: Very faint trace of something in the air. I cannot say it is wood smoke. But it could be highly diluted wood smoke from a distant fireplace user.

9:00 PM: No detectable wood smoke.

11:15 PM: No wood smoke. There was a little wood smoke after midnight.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Thursday 12/17/2009 Air Pollution

4:30 PM: No wood smoke.

5:15 PM: No wood smoke. 24 degrees.

7:00 PM: No wood smoke yet.

8:00 PM: No wood smoke.

9:00 PM: No wood smoke.

11:00 PM: No wood smoke.

I noticed no wood smoke until I woke up and checked the air after midnight. The air was smoky at 12:23 AM. Somebody waited until very late to start a fireplace.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Wednesday 12/16/2009 Air Pollution

2:15 PM: Light wood smoke varying with the breeze. 8 degrees, sunny.

4:00 PM: Faint wood smoke varying with the breeze. 13 degrees.

5:00 PM: No wood smoke.

6:15 PM: No wood smoke.

8:30 PM: No wood smoke.

11:00 PM: No wood smoke.

There was very little wood smoke this evening.

Tuesday 12/15/2009 Air Pollution

There was not a trace of wood smoke at all this evening. 1 degree at 5:30 PM. 0 degrees at 9 PM.

Monday 12/14/2009 Air Pollution

There was no wood smoke this evening. 12 degrees at 4:30 PM. 4 degrees at 9:45 PM.

People are not using fireplaces for home heating in North St. Paul.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Sunday 12/13/2009 Air Pollution

8:00 AM: No wood smoke. Only wonderful fresh air. 8 degrees.

3:30 PM: No wood smoke yet. 14 degrees.

5:30 PM: No wood smoke.

8:00 PM: No wood smoke yet. 10 degrees.

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

Saturday 12/12/2009 Air Pollution

3:30 PM: Faint to light wood smoke. There was no wood smoke prior to this time. 29 degrees, sunny.

5:30 PM: Faint to light wood smoke varying with the breeze.

6:45 PM: Faint wood smoke varying with the breeze.

10:15 PM: No wood smoke. Fresh air. Last check of the evening.

Friday 12/11/2009 Air Pollution

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

5:37 PM: Light wood smoke.

7:00 PM: Light wood smoke continues.

9:00 PM: Light wood smoke continues.

Midnight: No wood smoke. Last check of the evening.

Thursday 12/10/2009 Air Pollution

9:00 PM: Very faint wood smoke. Not much of it. There was no wood smoke prior to this check. This was the last check of the evening. 3 degrees at this time.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Wednesday 12/09/2009 Air Pollution

Winter has arrived. We had a cold October, a warm November, now winter comes roaring in. The temperature around noon was 9 degrees. It is hard to tell how much snow we got because the wind is blowing it around so much. Some parts of the driveway were bare and there were 2-foot snow drifts here and there. The news says we got about 3.5 inches in the northern metro.

6:00 PM: No wood smoke.

9:00 PM: No wood smoke. 2 degrees (Fahrenheit).

Interestingly, the colder it gets the less wood smoke there is in the air. Fireplaces are not used for home heating around here. They are used for recreation. The cold weather and lack of wood smoke provides ample evidence to back this theory. It is smokier in the summer than it is in the winter in North St. Paul.

10:15 PM: No wood smoke. Last check of the evening.

Tuesday 12/08/2009 Air Pollution

2:45 AM: Light wood smoke. I checked the air on my way back to bed and found it to be smoky. Somebody waited until very late to start burning this evening.

6:00 AM: No wood smoke. Fresh air.

7:00 AM: Fresh air continues.

6:30 PM: Faint to light wood smoke. Old man winter has arrived. We got 2 - 3 inches of snow. It is very windy with a temperature of 19 degrees.

7:45 PM: No wood smoke. Very windy.

9:00 PM: Very faint wood smoke in the air.

10:50 PM: No wood smoke. Windy. 16 degrees. Last check of the evening.

Monday 12/07/2009 Air Pollution

6:45 PM: No wood smoke. There is some very faint type of odor in the air. It is so faint I cannot tell what it is. It is possible it is highly diluted wood smoke from a distant source. 21 degrees.

9:00 PM: No wood smoke. The air is clear.

11:45 PM: Very faint trace of some type of odor in the air.

I cannot say there was any wood smoke this evening. But when I checked the air at 2:45 AM, it was smoky.

Sunday 12/06/2009 Air Pollution

5:20 PM: No wood smoke up to this point. There is a very faint odor in the air. It smells like blueberry muffins baking. 21 degrees.

8:00 PM: Very faint trace of wood smoke in the air. 20 degrees.

9:00 PM: Faint wood smoke at this time. 18 degrees.

11:00 PM: Very faint trace of wood smoke in the air. Last check of the evening.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Saturday 12/05/2009 Air Pollution

4:00 PM: No wood smoke.

4:55 PM: Light wood smoke. 26 degrees.

6:05 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. It's getting smokier.

7:15 PM: Faint to light wood smoke.

10:00 PM: Faint wood smoke.

Midnight: Faint wood smoke continues.

Friday 12/04/2009 Air Pollution

6:30 PM: Very faint trace of wood smoke in the air. It's hardly worth mentioning. 18 degrees.

8:00 PM: Very faint odor of some kind in the air. It kind of has a sulfur smell. I can't say it is wood smoke. 18 degrees.

10:00 PM: Very faint odor of something lingers in the air.

Midnight. Fresh air.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Thursday 12/03/2009 Air Pollution

5:30 AM: Very faint trace of wood smoke in the air. You can barely smell it but enough to know it is present. We got a light dusting of snow overnight.

4:30 PM: No wood smoke. 25 degrees, a few flakes of snow are falling.

6:45 PM: No wood smoke.

8:00 PM: No wood smoke.

11:00 PM: No wood smoke.

There was no wood smoke at all this evening.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Wednesday 12/02/2009 Air Pollution

4:00 PM: No wood smoke. 32 degrees.

5:30 PM: No wood smoke. 31 degrees.

7:30 PM: No wood smoke. 31 degrees.

9:00 PM: No wood smoke.

11:45 PM: No wood smoke. I checked the air on my way back to bed.

This is the second evening in a row without wood smoke. Summer is smokier than the fall and winter in North St. Paul.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Negative heat efficiency of fireplaces

A Star Tribune reader with two fireplaces wrote to the paper inquiring as to why they smell smoke in the lower level of their home when the upper level fireplace is going. The columnist wrote that the likely reason is the heat from the upper fireplace is pushing air up the chimney causing the lower level flue to act as an intake to replace the missing air.

Star Tribune

Fireplaces often create negative heat efficiency. They cause more heat loss through the house than they produce. From an energy perspective, they are as inefficient as can be. From an environmental perspective, they add additional pollution to our air harmful to us all.

People who say they need to use fireplaces for home heating are full of hot air. For most fireplace users, the use is purely recreational and completely unnecessary. One person wants to use a fireplace for recreational purposes and everyone from children walking to and from school to joggers and the rest of us have to breathe toxic polluted air.

I have never demanded the banning of fireplace use during cold months. But when you consider the pollution and negative heat efficiency fireplaces produce, I can see no good argument for allowing them.

Tuesday 12/01/2009 Air Pollution

4:15 PM: No wood smoke. Love that fresh air! 45 degrees.

7:00 PM: No wood smoke yet. The air is delightfully fresh. 42 degrees at North High School.

There was no wood smoke this evening up until close to midnight.