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, May 31, 2010

Monday 05/31/2010 Air Pollution

It is a beautiful Memorial Day. It is another smoky evening in North St. Paul, MN.

About 1 PM: There was a little grass smoke in the early afternoon. I failed to record the time.

5:00 PM: Faint grass smoke at this time coming in on the breeze. Somebody is burning yard waste. I smelled it coming in the window at the dinner table. Close the windows. One room smells faintly like grass smoke. The duration of the grass smoke was about 20 minutes. The illegal yard waste burner was not near us. It could have been someone blocks away.

6:00 PM: No smoke at this time. Sunny, beautiful, 79 degrees.

Tonight, the air will likely be filled with the stench of burning wood. It is a perfect evening for polluting the air.

8:00 PM: No wood smoke.

8:05 PM: Faint to light wood smoke at this time. The air was clear just a few minutes ago. The wood smoke is blowing in on the wind. Nobody near us is burning. You know the drill. Close the windows!

8:30 PM: Faint wood smoke blowing in on the wind continues.

9:00 PM: Light wood smoke.

9:15 PM: At this time I went out looking for wood smoke. It was faintly smoky on the southern edge of Silver Lake. Back on 18th between Charles & Henry, the wood smoke was stronger. Somebody nearby is burning, possibly on that row of houses or further south beyond 17th. Over on 19th & Margaret, there was faint wood smoke, but it did not smell like the wood smoke I encountered further east. I also encountered another type of wood smoke near 18th & Helen.

9:40 PM: Back home. The air smells faintly like burning paper. It isn't wood smoke.

10:05 PM: The air is mostly clear. Open the windows.

10:45 PM: The air is clear.

11:30 PM: No smoke of any kind.

On a side note, I was appalled to see the garbage cans overflowing with refuse at Silver Lake. The lake gets busy with picnickers on holidays. The garbage was piled high above the waste receptacles. Garbage was scattered on the ground near the garbage containers as well. If people using the park for picnics bring the refuse, maybe they should take it home with them and dispose of it properly instead of littering our park.