The Bay Area Air Quality Management District is asking the region’s residents not to burn wood in their fireplaces or woodstoves over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend to prevent air quality impacts in inland valleys and neighborhoods.
The agency, which is responsible for protecting air quality in the nine-county Bay Area, said that while air quality is expected to be good to moderate throughout the region, wood burning during the holiday can significantly impact local areas and neighborhoods.
District officials said a Spare the Air Alert is not in effect and wood burning isn’t illegal, but it is being discouraged.
image: courtesy of firewood.ca.gov
59 comments
Here we go again. It’s raining!! But oh no, don’t use your fireplace. It’s not even close to being a spare the air day. It’s beyond absurd.
I plan to burn a log this evening while we’re watching a movie. It adds a nice ambience to our family room, and with the rain, it won’t be an issue. Good grief.
they want us to refrain. but sure an enticing picture on this brisk day.
No this.
No that.
I’ve got a gas log- I highly recommend it!! No buying wood, no mess, turn off off when your done with it, and no worries whether it’s a spare the air day or not!
I’m putting that on my list for Santa.
How many thousand dollars did it cost to run the gas line to the fireplace, and the setup for the gas log, and is it a heat source for the whole house? It is decorative, only, right?
Just remember WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!
1/3 of trash on the beaches are plastic straws!
—-WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING
2/3 of Bay Area air pollution is from wood burning fire places!
—WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING
27/32th of all statistics are made up on the spot to validate someone’s statement.
yes, we must do something. Let’s all use gas powered leaf blowers to blow the garbage off the beaches and blow the smoke away. Problem sovled.
We are doing something. California has the strictest emission laws in the world and the plastic straws you are so worried about are from certain Asian countries, with China being number one.
Ten rivers are known to be dumping plastics into the ocean, with eight of those rivers being in Asia. The Yangtze, Ganges, and the Niger River are the top three ocean polluters.
Do your own research instead of believing everything you read.
One third, two thirds, and twenty-seven thirty twoths? Wow, that a whole gang load of statistics! 🤣
Interesting that you (sarcastically) mention 2/3 of all winter pollution is from wood burning. The Air Board started out using the figure 32 percent when the STA bans first started (less than 1/3). They raised it to 35 percent a few years later and then to 37 percent. Now they say most winter air pollution is from wood burning, but you have to question their “calculations”. They’ve been banning wood burning over the years yet the problem seems to get worse (or so they’d have us believe), and I know people have quit using open fireplaces (the worst), and also have converted to gas fireplaces. They never seem to attack any of the other sources – you know, the contributors of the other 63+ percent!
Straight white males account for 69.67% of all air pollution in 73.57% of all bay area counties. Yet gavin newsom, marc desaulnier, tom steyer and eric swalwell are all white bay area democrats. Based on these facts, should we assume that bay area democratic douche bags are responsible for the majority of bay area air pollution?
@John P – it’s possible the numbers are accurate. If you manage to eliminate or reduce the low hanging fruit among the polluters then the percentage contributed by other sources will go up.
It would be better if organizations such as BAAQMD were transparent about how they arrived at their numbers and provided enough data so that others can see trends.
Lord Broadbent , the high poo bah of the air district is advised to tend to his own business.
California is not going to allow new homes to have gas stoves. I am sure gas fireplaces are also frowned upon.
It’s cold and raining! If you can’t use your fireplace, then when would be a good time? Why not ban politicians from speaking, if you want to improve air quality?
Excellent idea!
Discouraged??? This agency is a joke
Sorry..request declined.
Had both pellets and wood. Messy and lots of work. Switched to gas insert and will never have anything else.
Don’t forget to pay your higher gas bill.
I continue to deal with the acquisition, stacking, and chopping of firewood – almond mostly, with some redwood fence boards for kindling. I burn in an EPA approved wood burning appliance – a Buck Bay 91 – that’s 25 years old. I keep it properly maintained and replace the catalytic combustor when it starts to fail. I discharge 5-10 grams of the PM 2.5 the Air Board loves to cite in an hour; that’s less than a diesel 18-wheeler with poor maintenance and older pollution controls discharges in 50 miles. I don’t to enrich the felons at PG&E by going gas even though the wood effort is starting to become difficult..
A man who cuts his own firewood gets warm twice.
How is Berkeley doing with no natural gas. I bet the electric bill for most is very high since it’s way more expensive to heat your house with this method. Even the neighborhood communes have a high price to pay.
Blankets are cheap!!
Bezerkeleyans will be walking around in their long underwear all winter in those great big houses in the Claremont district without their gas furnaces. Their electric bills are going to shock the daylights out of them. I can’t believe these politically tidy liberals did not anticipate how the poor are going to survive with insufficient heat when its cold outside.
Berkeley’s ban hasn’t even gone into effect yet, and when it does it only applies to new construction.
Berkeley has a milder climate than the Claycord area. It does not get as hot in the summer nor as cold in the winter. At the moment it’s 52° in Berkeley, 47° in WC, and 46° in Concord.
More than just an acquaintance of Berzerkley, I lived and worked there for many years. One, a building of concrete construction, had walls that efficiently cooled the whole place to a comfortable 60 degrees summer … and winter. It has nothing to do with the exterior climate and everything to do with how the building retains heat.
Yet there is pollution pouring out of the refinery now. Why is that acceptable.
follow the money
Then shut them down ! Don’t complain about the price of gas.
It takes days to properly shut down a refinery. Otherwise, it emits all kind of foul fumes and possibly smoke.
Why so late? Weekend is like basically over but you post a request about thanksgiving weekend when it’s near over..
That’s like telling someone to enjoy the weekend on a Monday..
Hey Dean
If you read Claycord regularly you would have seen this article first posted on the 28th. This is a “reminder”. Looks like Claycord just posted it again.
Broadbent must not go camping.
Cheery little article about flaring in Texas.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Reporter-s-Notebook-Natural-gas-producers-in-14863390.php#photo-18669138
BAAQMD data shows that 85-90% of wintertime PM 2.5 comes from sources other than people heating their homes with wood.
The only thing they can can harp about in the winter is wood burning, it gets them on tv and the newspapers.
What about all the refineries and commercial pollution?
They don’t run on wood anymore.
Duh!
Today when it’s pouring down I can still smell very distinctly my neighbor’s fire place. I don’t think I should have to accept his pollution into my lungs. I’m turning him in, I hope it gets fined or whatever.
for wut, u dolt? it was a no burn “request” , not a ban… my guess u use the heck out of a safe space…
@Jojo Potato You can turn them in all you want today, they won’t be cited. It is not a Mandated No Burn Day. You might want to read the regulations to determine what is allowed and what isn’t. BAAQMD is merely requesting one does not burn during the Thanksgiving Holiday, it is not a no burn advisory. Read BAAQMD Regulation 6, Rule 3 for what is and is not allowed. In fact, I called BAAQMD about a local business that was polluting, and they told me to call the business and discuss it with the business, instead.
http://www.baaqmd.gov/~/media/dotgov/files/rules/regulation-6-rule-3/documents/20191120_r0603_final-pdf.pdf?la=en
Glad you are not my neighbor.
Way to go Deputy Fife! You sure showed them!
Jojo,you’re a cigarette smoker,aren’t you?
Jojo – Go back to your safe space, sonny.
@Jojo Potato If you can smell smoke from a neighbors wood fire with all your doors and windows closed, you likely have some sort of negative air pressure event occurring in your house. Air is being pulled into your house from outside. You might try opening a window just a crack to interrupt this negative air flow.
I spent 37 years living in West Oakland without a heating source besides a beautiful enormous fireplace. I could heat the whole upstairs with it. I went outside a LOT to bring in more firewood among other things, and on rainy days and low atmospheric pressure days in general, I usually smelled smoke. My whole neighborhood often smelled my smoke on those days, and a few of them told me about it. Some lived on other blocks. High pressure days, not so much. I gave myself asthma. Now I can smell other people’s wood fire smoke (among other airborne particulates and chemicals) and it makes it uncomfortable for me to breathe. Kharma.
Well, I don’t have a choice, so I’m not going to feel bad about it. You all certainly didn’t. “Energy is neither created nor destroyed, it merely changes form.” Your auto exhaust gives me asthma, my wood smoke gives you asthma. No karma involved. When BAAQMD starts addressing the truly serious sources of pollution in the Bay Area, not the easiest to pick on, I’ll reconsider.
Isn’t the real problem that there are far too many of us?
Gee Pappy, you seem pretty rational today. Did you have a good holiday?
People tend to think that they burning wood is harmless. But it isn’t. I’m allergic to wood smoke. It gives me asthma and arthritis.
I have two neighbors who’s smoke ends up in my backyard. Where it creeps into the bedroom, while I am asleep, and pools around my doors. I am thinking of buying a shrieking turbine to blow their smoke back into their yards.
Those black smoking diesels are the trucks that give children life threatening asthma. There are higher rates of asthma along the freeways and highways. Just so you know.
Asthma can be brought on by gasoline engines, as well, and mine got worse when people delivering their kids to school started using my street as a shortcut. It actually leaves a black, carbon-like dust on my driveway. It also didn’t help when everybody started using Pine Hollow as a shortcut to Ygnacio Valley and traffic increased substantially. Neither are actually “shortcuts” in the true sense of the word. People using them have just convinced themselves they are shortcuts because they aren’t sitting in traffic … or as much traffic. So, I’ll put up with the wood smoke because there are so many other sources of pollution that BAAQMD don’t address.
Please explain why harming the planet gives you pleasure. I’ve never understood that attitude.
If you’re that concerned about “harming the planet”, you might want to go after the heavy hitters – China, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Mongolioa, Kuwait, Nepal, UAE, Qatar, Iran, Egypt, Nepal, etc….
I think all homes suck in air from the outside…. unless your home is producing it’s own oxygen.
Right, they do. The question is, how much?
Please see youtube video: ‘Insight Ship Pollution’
These ships are burning Bunker fuel which is the waste products of oil refineries and it’s Nasty stuff. One ship pollutes more than one million vehicles per day.
Yes, our air is affected by this…..it either blows in from the Bay or the River.
Also, when is the last time an audit was done at a rail yard? Locomotives idling all night long.
And who can forget the 10,000+ flights per day.
But you and I are easier targets…..just like the irs said.
Comments are closed.