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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Saturday, September 4, 2010

Saturday 09/04/2010 Air Pollution

12:45 AM: Light wood smoke continues. The air has been smoky for the better part of seven hours already. Back to bed. 54 degrees.

2:15 AM: Light to moderate wood smoke. The air is pretty smoky. It is smokier than it was the last time I checked the air. This smoke must be from the recreational use of a fireplace. It is not that cold outside. Nobody needs to use a fireplace for home heating when it is 50 degrees outside and will climb into the upper 60s to 70 later in the day. This makes about nine hours of smoky air tonight.

6:30 AM: Fresh air! Thank God! We can crack a window to get some fresh air in here. It is a very fall-like 48 degrees at this time. Savor the fresh air. It will not last long. If we get 12 hours of fresh air today we will be very lucky.

It was an extremely smoky evening. The wood smoke lasted all night and well into Sunday morning.

4:30 PM: Very faint smoke of some type is in the air. I cannot tell what is being burned. It is not from the grilling of food. It comes and goes with the breeze. 67 degrees. A few windows are open slightly to provide fresh air.

6:35 PM: Moderate wood smoke. The air is very smoky. As is normal in this town.

7:00 PM: Strong wood smoke. The air is extremely smoky right now. We are prisoners in our own home once again in this nightmare city.

7:30 PM: Faint wood smoke at this time.

7:55 PM: The wood smoke is mostly gone. The only thing in the air is the smell of food being grilled.

8:25 PM: Faint to light wood smoke. It is going to be a long, smoky hell of a night.

8:55 PM: Moderate wood smoke. The air is very smoky again.

9:30 PM: Strong wood smoke. This wood smoke is extremely heavy! This is inhumane!

10:00 PM: Moderate to strong wood smoke continues. How many more hours is this air pollution going to last?

10:30 PM: Strong wood smoke. The wood smoke is so strong you cannot stand to breathe the air. Breathing the outdoor air for a few minutes will likely make your sinuses burn. Stepping outside for a few seconds will leave your clothes reeking of wood smoke. We are prisoners. 59 degrees at this time. Off to bed.

The air was smoky all night long. There was still wood smoke in the air at 6 AM the following morning.