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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Monday, April 11, 2011

Saturday 04/09/2011 Air Pollution

If you want to get an idea of what living in North St. Paul is like, imagine living in hell. Today we enjoyed smoky, polluted air all day long. One of city council member Jan Walczak's neighbors was burning brush for about 4-5 hours today. I wonder if he had a permit because that is a really long time to burn yard waste, even by the standards of this polluted town.

8:00 AM: Light wood smoke. I hate this city. If you had to breathe this polluted air every day of your life, you would hate it, too.

10:00 AM: Light wood smoke continues.

Around noon: Light to moderate brush smoke. Someone is burning branches and yard waste.

12:55 PM: A neighbor within 150 feet or so of city council member Jan Walczak's house is burning brush in his back yard. Huge clouds of smoke are being generated. We can smell the smoke blocks away! I wonder if Jan Walczak even lives in this city sometimes. How can she not notice all the smoky burners around her? She must really love polluted air. Walczak has for years refused to do a thing about the daily wood and yard waste smoke pollution. Some of the smokiest burners in the city had Jan Walczak campaign signs in their yards back during the 2008 election. Air polluters have an ally in Jan Walczak.

2:00 PM: Brush smoke continues.

3:20 PM: Faint grass smoke at this time. There was a light rain or drizzle earlier. It did not seem to put a halt to the yard waste burning in this nightmare town.

5:00 PM: Very faint brush smoke continues. 57 degrees. This makes about 5 hours of continuous yard waste smoke in the air. A quick journey around the neighborhood finds several yard waste burners. Do you want to live in a city like this?

6:15 PM: Mostly fresh air. Enjoy the little bit of fresh air while it lasts.

7:00 PM: The air is not fresh. It is mostly clear but there is something in it.

7:45 PM: Fresh air! Thank God!

8:45 PM: Fresh air continues.

9:20 PM: Faint wood smoke at this time. It's always smoky in North St. Paul.

10:00 PM: No wood smoke.

10:42 PM: No wood smoke.

11:15 PM: No wood smoke.

11:30 PM: No smoke. Lightning at this time.

It was a smoky, polluted hell of a day in the city of North St. Paul, MN. In other words, it was a normal day for us poor residents of this polluted nightmare city.