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, March 24, 2012

Saturday 03/24/2012 Air Pollution

At least nine fires were burning within a quarter mile radius of us this evening. The wood smoke from Friday night continued well into this morning. There was intermittent burning throughout the day and asshole frequent burner started burning for the first time this season. Asshole frequent burner usually burns four to six times a week, all spring, summer, and fall long and burns yard waste, too, sometimes late at night. He produces huge clouds of smoke and burns for hours at a time day after day. The idiots in charge of this stupid horrible city made it legal and there is nothing we can do about it. Smoky air, noisy drunks. North St. Paul sucks!

Do you want to live in a city like this? Click the Facebook Like button on this blog if you have a Facebook account to help spread the word about the punishment we endure living in North St. Paul, Minnesota.

12:30 AM: Light to moderate wood smoke from Friday night's burning continues.

2:00 AM: Very faint stinky smoldering wood smoke lingers in the air. I checked the air on my way back to bed. Still can't open the windows. Don't want that stinky smell in the house. Somebody probably left their bonfire smoldering all night long. That happens all the time in North St. Paul. This city is a horrible place to live.

7:00 AM: Fresh air. Finally we can open the windows!

11:00 AM: Faint to light wood smoke. Somebody is burning somewhere around this time. Close the windows! 53 degrees and cloudy at this time. It could be a fireplace or somebody could be burning some tree branches. Who knows in this town. If it is combustible, people burn it.

12:00 PM: The air is not fresh. I can't determine what is in it but I know it isn't fresh.

1:30 PM: Not fresh air continues.

2:30 PM: Faint wood smoke around this time.

4:00 PM: Air is not fresh. Something is in it.

4:25 PM: Strong smell of lighter fluid is in the air. When you smell lighter fluid, you know one thing. Asshole frequent burner is going to start burning. Last year he burned about three or four times a week, much less than usual. He usually burns four to six times a week, every week, and has been doing this since around 2004. He's burned tons of wood on that property over the past eight years. His burning starts between 4 PM and 7 PM, he lets his wood smolder itself out, and by the time asshole's wood smoke is done the bonfires start elsewhere. It's wood smoke hell. Close the remaining windows. We know what is coming.

4:30 PM: I went out around the corner and confirmed that asshole frequent burner is burning. He is producing huge clouds of smoke at this time. The smoke is drifting south.

4:34 PM: Wood smoke from asshole frequent burner at home now. North St. Paul sucks! The smoke comes and goes as the breeze shifts direction. We are not catching much of his smoke at this time. We are lucky today. Sometimes we are not so lucky. 68 degrees, and it would be a beautiful evening to sit outside if not for the heavy wood smoke pollution.

4:46 PM: No smoke here. It comes and goes.

5:30 PM: No smoke. Went out and saw asshole frequent burner is still smoking up a storm. Huge clouds of smoke. Lucky for us it isn't coming this way.

6:15 PM: No smoke here.

6:40 PM: Moderate wood smoke. The heavy wood smoke is from the asshole frequent burner. You know the smell of his wood smoke.

7:25 PM: Moderate wood smoke continues. Went out and saw from behind the property huge bursts of smoke going up. That asshole is feeding more wood onto his fire. He's been burning for three hours now. And he will burn every day the weather is nice until September or October. And he will burn grass and in the fall he will burn leaves. And sometimes he will burn his grass after midnight under cover of darkness.

8:00 PM: Faint wood smoke. Smells different than before. Bonfires are starting now.

Sometime between 8:30 and 9 PM I went out for a little ride through the neighborhood. I made a quarter mile circle through the neighborhood, not going down most of the roads. I counted nine homes burning including asshole frequent burner. I saw two more homes I thought could be burning wood but couldn't see anything. There is not much of a breeze at this time. One home had a cloud of smoke hanging over the backyard and I could hear crackling from another home. It's early. More burners will be burning after 10 PM. It's going to be a long, smoky hell of a night.

After going through the neighborhood I headed over to Silver Lake. Smoky as hell over there in some parts. City council member Bob Bruton's neighbor a few houses south was having a bonfire. Down two homes further south was another home having a bonfire. Without much breeze, the smoke seemed to be drifting south and east. That's a shame because Bob Bruton supports recreational burning. He told me he did. Living north of the fires, the smoke may not make it into his windows.

A rental property five homes north of city council member Jan Walczak was having a bonfire. There was a for rent sign in front of the home a couple of months ago. The new tenants look like they are going to be burners. I hope the smoke drifted south onto Jan Walczak's property. Walczak was the first person I complained to about the horrible wood smoke pollution problem in this city back in 2008 and she did not do anything to help. I did not see any windows open at Walczak's house as I passed down on Helen St. Open your windows, Jan. Let that wood smoke into your living room and bedroom. You are the reason this wood smoke exists.

9:00 PM: Light wood smoke. The smoke is only going to get heavier.

9:35 PM: Moderate wood smoke. It is very smoky outside. You don't want to be outside breathing this toxic air.

11:00 PM: Moderate wood smoke continues.

11:55 PM: Light to moderate wood smoke continues. No chance of opening the windows before bed. We'll just have to hope the bonfires burn themselves out before we wake up in the morning so we can enjoy a few hours of fresh air before the burning starts again.