March 29, 2024
AQMD extinguishes wood-burning fireplaces
SOUTHLAND--It’s the beginning of the end for wood-burning fireplaces.

Air quality officials Friday approved an incentive program that gives consumers up to $150 to convert their fireplaces to clean-burning gas logs.

The AQMD says smoke from wood-burning fireplaces generates four-times as much pollution as all the power plants in the metropolitan portions of Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange counties. During the winter, that amounts to 13 tons a day.

It’s estimated there are 1.4 million homes in the Southland with wood-burning stoves and fireplaces.

* Beginning March 7, 2009, only fireplaces fueled by gas (such as gas logs) may be installed in a new residential or commercial building in the Southland. Permanently installed indoor or outdoor wood-burning fireplaces or stoves are not permitted after this date in new construction;

* Beginning March 7, 2009, only the cleanest-burning wood stoves and heaters, and dedicated gas heaters, may be sold in the Southland and permanently installed in existing homes and buildings. These include U.S. EPA Phase II-certified fireplace inserts or stoves; pellet-fueled heaters; masonry heaters or gas heating units such as gas inserts or gas logs;

* Effective immediately, commercial wood sellers in the four-county region may only sell seasoned wood (with less than 20 percent moisture content)
from July 1 through February each year;

* Effective immediately, residents cannot burn trash or other items not intended to be used as fuel in a fireplace or wood stove; and

* Beginning on Nov. 1, 2011, AQMD will issue mandatory wood-burning curtailments from November through February in specific areas on days when PM2.5 levels are forecast to reach unhealthy levels.
Story Date: October 29, 2008
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