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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Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Tuesday 04/12/2011 Air Pollution

There was yard waste smoke most of the day today. This year is the worst ever for yard waste burning. Every year in this nightmare town more people burn than the year before. We are living in a city where nobody has any respect for anyone else. Thanks to our city council members who force us to breathe contaminated air every day of our lives.

9:30 AM: It was around this time that I noticed the odor of burning grass in the air. Faint grass smoke at this time.

12:51 PM: Light to moderate grass smoke. The illegal yard waste burner must not be too far away for the air pollution to be this strong.

1:25 PM: Faint grass smoke continues.

2:15 PM: Faint grass smoke continues.

3:30 PM: A very faint yard waste smoke lingers in the air.

5:00 PM: No smoke. 68 degrees, sunny, a beautiful day if not for the damn smoke pollution in this screwy city!

6:25 PM: Faint grass smoke. Another burner joining the yard waste burning party or is it someone burning yard waste in batches? Just get the damn yard waste burning done so we can enjoy an evening or two of fresh air before the bonfire burning starts!

Fresh air is very rare in North St. Paul. We breathe wood smoke, brush smoke, grass smoke, paper smoke, and who knows what other contaminants on a daily basis. So will your little children should you make the mistake of moving to North St. Paul, MN.

6:40 PM: No smoke.

7:25 PM: A very faint trace of grass smoke lingers in the air at this time.

I made a big mistake this evening. I went for a walk. The air along the southern edge of Silver Lake was so smoky I ended up with a sore throat. At one point I could not breathe. My body was fighting my attempts to draw air into my lungs and I thought I might suffocate. There was a bonfire in the area of 19th & Margaret that generated a lot of smoke. I could see a huge cloud of smoke rising from the backyard of one of the homes in the area. The really bad smoke came further down. At around 19th & Charles I encountered some very strong wood and chemical smoke. It was not regular firewood that was being burned. Some sort of waste or substance other than firewood was being burned. The odor could best be described as similar to a citronella candle but different and much stronger. It was a chemical smell. My throat was sore by the time I arrived home from the heavy smoke I had to breathe. I later found out the fire was coming from a home in the area of 17th & Henry.

Do not go for walks in North St. Paul during the evening or you may suffocate from the heavy air pollution. I am not exaggerating about how bad the smoke was. Someone older than myself may have very well keeled over and died as a result of the heavy air pollution.

8:35 PM: A very faint wood and chemical smell is in the air. The breeze is bringing the smoke from the home on 17th & Charles to our neighborhood a good distance away.

10:00 PM: No wood smoke. Fresh air! Thank God!

Do you want to live in a city like this?