Recreational Fires Must Be Eliminated

Do you support clean air? Click the Facebook Like button if you have a Facebook account.

Share
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!

Friday, June 4, 2010

Friday 06/04/2010 Air Pollution

I see visitors are finding this blog by searching for "Crazy Days". It was renamed "Slice of Summer". I wanted to mention it so more people will find this blog.

The wood smoke has started early this Friday evening. As always when the weather is nice, this is going to be another smoky hell of an evening in North St. Paul, MN.

4:20 PM: No wood smoke. 82 degrees, sunny, beautiful.

6:00 PM: No wood smoke.

7:00 PM: Light wood smoke at this time. First the lighter fluid, then the wood smoke. I went out and found the culprit. It's the same household that burns between this time several times a week. They took a break for a week or two, but the break is over. A huge cloud of smoke of wood smoke is coming from their yard right now. They live about 500 feet from city council member Jan Walczak. I hope she can smell the wood smoke. She loves smoky air. 83 degrees at this time and getting smokier.

This turned out to be one of the smokiest nights in a long time.

8:00 PM: Faint wood smoke.

8:12 PM: Light wood smoke.

8:55 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. It is really smoky outside.

9:10 PM: Moderate wood smoke. Now it is very smoky outside. The intensity of the wood smoke increased in 15 minutes.

10:00 PM: Faint to light wood smoke. The poisonous North St. Paul air is decreasing in toxicity.

10:15 PM: Faint wood smoke. We are heading in the right direction, thank God!

11:20 PM: Moderate to strong wood smoke. It is extremely smoky outside right now. It is so smoky, I can smell wood smoke coming in with all the windows and doors closed up tight.

11:45 PM: Strong wood smoke! The wood smoke is so heavy it cannot get much stronger! This air is not fit for human consumption. Just sticking my head out the door for a few seconds left me smelling like wood smoke. I have to bathe and change clothes before bed. We again are tortured by our city council all of whom support this wood smoke pollution.

To make matters much worse, the power went out after midnight. We were trapped in a warm stuffy house with no electricity. Do you want to live in a city like this?