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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Friday, August 27, 2010

Friday 08/27/2010 Air Pollution

The wood smoke from last evening's burning continued until well after midnight. It got stronger after midnight.

12:41 AM: Faint smoldering wood smoke.

12:45 AM: Faint to light wood smoke. It is getting stronger. No chance of opening the windows for hours.

12:55 AM: Light wood smoke. The smoke is stronger still.

3:00 AM: The air is fresh! The windows can finally be opened!

6:10 PM: No smoke where we are. 86 degrees, sunny, windy, and beautiful. One frequent burner is already burning. I noticed a cloud of smoke being blown by the wind when I was coming back. I do not know what he was burning as the smoke was not coming my direction. He usually burns wood, grass, and leaves. Will this be another smoky evening? It is a little windy for bonfires.

7:00 PM: No smoke. The air is fresh. It is wonderful to breathe fresh air! Fresh air is very rare in North St. Paul.

8:00 PM: No smoke. Fresh air continues for the time being. It is not as windy as it was earlier.

8:30 PM: Faint to light wood smoke. The air is smoky again. This is the fifth consecutive evening of smoky air in this hell on earth city. Do you want to breathe smoky air every day of your life? Our windows are closed. The air conditioning is on. The current temperature is 80 degrees. In a normal city, we would open the windows before going to bed to cool the house. But the smoky air makes that impossible. The air conditioner will run all night and we will bear the expense.

We have suffered for years with smoky air because of city council members Jan Walczak, Bob Bruton, Dave Zick, and Terry Furlong. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year the air is smoky. This city is hell on earth.

9:10 PM: Faint wood smoke varying with the breeze. The burner is not near us. It is breezy at this time.

9:30 PM: Faint wood smoke varying with the breeze continues.

10:00 PM: Faint to light wood smoke. The air pollution has gotten a little stronger.

10:45 PM: No smoke. Fresh air. Could this be the end of the burning tonight?

11:30 PM: No smoke. Fresh air continues.

Midnight. No smoke. Fresh air. 73 degrees at this time.

For a Friday the wood smoke was not that bad. The air was smoky as it usually is. But it could have been a lot worse. Last Friday there was no wood smoke at all. There was no wood or grass smoke all weekend. We paid the price for three days of wonderful smoke-free air with five consecutive evenings of smoky air.