With temperatures in the lower 70s, you had to know that this day would be very smoky in North St. Paul, MN. It was by all accounts a beautiful spring day. A good day to be alive. Unless you like to breathe fresh air, of course.
7:15 PM: Air outside is starting to get smoky.
8:00 PM: Air is very smoky. Stepping outside, wood smoke is the only thing you can smell. This is not a good way to live!
9:00 PM: Still just as smoky.
10:00 PM: Still very smoky.
11:00 PM: Very heavy wood smoke outside. Terrible!
Midnight: Heavy wood smoke.
Saturday morning
1:30 AM: Faint trace of wood smoke lingers in the air. I don't want to open my windows since the air still smells like wood smoke. It is not heavy smoke like before. I don't want to breathe it or have my home smelling like it.
2:30 AM: Light wood smoke odor lingers in the air. The fire has probably been extinguished and is smoldering or the remnants of burnt wood are giving off the odor.
From 7:15 PM Friday evening until the last time I checked at 2:30 AM Saturday morning there was wood smoke in the air. Wood smoke was very heavy this evening. This is something I expected since this was the first really nice weekend evening of the year. I did not see anybody burning around me. The guy down the street who burned every day last year hasn't been burning much at all so far. I think other people have been making up for his lack of pollution.
That's seven hours of horribly unpleasant, smoky air this night. Will the city council ever come to the conclusion that the residents of this city have suffered enough? Or will they continue to defend the rights of the minority who burn wood and unnecessarily pollute the air we must breathe?
Which is more important? The right of children, the elderly, asthmatics, and others who never burn wood to breathe fresh air, or the right of the minority to burn wood because they can't come up with any other ways to entertain themselves?
Everybody needs fresh air. Nobody needs to burn wood for recreational purposes.