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!

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Thursday 08/26/2010 Air Pollution

Today is the first day of the state fair. Summer is ending, but our wood smoke hell is not. It is another smoky evening. This is normal in North St. Paul, MN. The air is smoky almost every evening if it is not too hot or is not raining. We have been tortured by our city council with smoky air for years. I wish they would move away and torture the residents of another city.

2:35 AM: Very faint wood smoke and smoke from whatever waste was being burned the prior evening continues. Put plainly, the air stinks! The windows must remain closed all night. It is very cool outside. The temperature at 10 PM yesterday evening was 64 degrees. It is probably down in the 50s by now. It is 75 degrees inside the house.

7:00 AM: The air is fresh.

6:00 PM: Faint to light wood smoke. It is 78 degrees, sunny, and beautiful except for the air pollution ruining an otherwise perfect evening! The recreational wood burning is starting earlier than usual. Thanks again, city council, for making us breathe smoky air. You suck. The only thing Jan Walczak, Bob Bruton, Terry Furlong, and Dave Zick are doing is taking a formerly nice city and turning it into hell on earth.

I was taking a shower and cleaning up when I opened the window to smell wood smoke. A lesson I have learned living in North St. Paul is that I must close the bathroom window when showering in the evening. Too often I have been showering and step out of the shower to find the bathroom reeking of wood smoke or smoke from burning grass or leaves. With the window open, the exhaust fan sucks in outside air and if the air is smoky, the bathroom is going to be smoky. Had I not closed the bathroom window before showering this evening, I would have stepped out into a smoky bathroom. I hate that! I also closed the bedroom window before showering, too. Had I not, that room may have been smoky, too.

This is how we live in this horrible city. We have been living like this for years. Do you want to live like this?

6:13 PM: Very faint wood smoke continues.

6:20 PM: Faint wood smoke continues. The intensity of the wood smoke is fluctuating.

6:40 PM: Very faint wood smoke. 79 degrees at this time measured at North High School.

7:00 PM: Faint wood smoke continues. The windows remain closed. Faint wood smoke is strong enough to smell and I do not want to smell it in the house. Do you want to breathe smoky air sitting in your living room?

7:45 PM: Faint wood smoke continues. The air will probably be smoky all night long.

8:15 PM: Faint smoldering wood smoke continues.

9:10 PM: Faint smoldering wood smoke continues. Still cannot open the windows. It is 71 degrees outside and 77 degrees inside and we cannot open the windows because the air reeks of wood smoke! North St. Paul sucks!

We get to look forward to smoke from burning leaves in a few weeks. Do you want to live in a city like this?

9:40 PM: The air is mostly clear. Either the wood has burned itself out or the breeze shifted directions. I am praying that this is the end of the wood smoke for tonight. I want to cool the house before bed. It is not easy to sleep when it is warm and stuffy inside the house. It is a cool, comfortable 70 degrees outside and a warm 77 degrees inside.

10:08 PM: A very faint trace of wood smoke continues varying with the breeze. I can smell a hint of wood smoke one minute and none the next.

10:15 PM: A very faint varying trace of wood smoke continues. I am opening the windows to cool the house before bed. I hope I can cool it a few degrees before the air gets smoky again.

10:35 PM: Light wood smoke. Somebody starting burning. Close the windows. We got to open the windows for all of 20 minutes this evening. NORTH SAINT PAUL SUCKS!

10:45 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke. It is getting smokier. Maybe -- just maybe -- by morning we will have fresh air again. 68 degrees outside and we are prisoners in our own home because the air in this shitty city is smoky! NORTH SAINT PAUL SUCKS!

11:30 PM: Very faint wood smoke remains in the air. The wood smoke got stronger after midnight.

When I woke at 3 AM the air was clear enough to open the windows. We can finally breathe the outside air again.