Recreational Fires Must Be Eliminated

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WELCOME TO HELL ON EARTH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Sunday, April 4, 2010

Complaint to the EPA

I submitted a complaint to the federal Environmental Protection Agency this evening regarding the terrible wood smoke pollution in the city of North St. Paul, MN, using the agency's web submission form. The federal government mandated that Fairbanks, Alaska, clean up its air because of wood smoke pollution that exceeded federal guidelines. I am hoping for the same here.

I first contacted city council member Jan Walczak about the wood smoke problem in the city almost two years ago. She not only refused to help, but I found her reply to be belittling. I contacted city council members Bob Bruton, Dave Zick, and Terry Furlong in May of 2009. Bruton replied indicating his support for recreational wood burning and both Zick and Furlong ignored me completely. Mayor Mike Kuehn was sympathetic to our problem and feels strongly about it. Nobody on the city council cares if the smoky air triggers asthma attacks in children or makes it difficult for the elderly to breathe.

What I am ultimately after is the riddance of wood smoke pollution in North St. Paul, at least during the warm months of April through the end of October. I hope the EPA or another government agency will come out and measure the air pollution in the residential areas of the city. I think that wood smoke so strong it burns your sinuses would be beyond federal wood smoke pollution guidelines. If I can get the air pollution in the city measured and it exceeds federal guidelines, perhaps some legal action can be taken against the city.

This is the text of the complaint I submitted to the EPA.

I am writing about our terrible air pollution problem in North St. Paul, MN (zip code 55109). The city of North St. Paul is a separate city from St. Paul, MN. Many assume I am talking about the city of St. Paul when I am not. North St. Paul is a suburb northeast of the city of St. Paul.

Wood smoke pollution is a major problem in our city. Every evening the air is very smoky. Wood smoke this strong cannot be within EPA guidelines. Often the wood smoke is so heavy it burns your sinuses, makes you short of breath, or makes you feel nauseous. If it does not rain, the air is smoky every evening all year round. Spring, summer, and fall are smokier than winter in this city due to the prevalence of backyard bonfires.

Our city council has refused to deal with this problem. I contacted the state of Minnesota Pollution Control Agency last year and was told there was nothing they could do about this problem since it was a local issue.

So what are we supposed to do? Breathe smoky air every day that is filled with particulate pollution and not only smells terrible but is also bad for our health? We have a lot of elderly people in this city and children who should not be breathing smoky air every day.

I recently read an article that the federal government made Fairbanks, Alaska, clean up its air because wood smoke emissions were not within federal guidelines. I would like the same thing here in North St. Paul.

I was wondering if it would be possible to get the air quality measured in some residential areas in the city of North St. Paul, MN. If we can get the air pollution in this city quantified, maybe we can do something about it.

The city council has refused to do anything. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has refused to help. I do not know where else I can turn. As I write this on Easter Sunday, the air has been very smoky for 4 hours now. It will likely be smoky all night long. As it often is.

Is there anything the EPA can do to help us? The root cause is the city's generous recreational burning ordinance. If you can help Fairbanks, AK, can you help us here in North St. Paul, MN?

My email: northsaintpaulresident@gmail.com

My wood smoke documentation blog: http://northsaintpaulresident.blogspot.com

Please forward this complaint to the appropriate department if necessary. Thank you.
If the EPA refuses to help, I don't know what we can do. I will have to see if I can hire a company to come out and measure the air quality or something. I have no idea how much that would cost.
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