Vermont No. 1 in per capita wood stove emissions

MONTPELIER – The heavily forested states of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine are among the top five in the country for the per capita emission of pollutants from wood stoves used to heat homes.

Statistics compiled by the Environmental Protection Agency show that residential wood stoves in Vermont emit just over 22 pounds per person, almost double that of Minnesota, the No. 2 state. Maine is fourth and New Hampshire is fifth.

The Vermont figures do not include larger-scale wood heating facilities such as power plants, schools and prisons, said Michael Snyder, the commissioner of the Vermont Department of Forest Parks and Recreation.

“Using wood is really good, for heating in particular. We have wood. It’s potentially renewable, if we do it right. We think we can do it right,” Snyder said. “It’s a great way to avoid fossil fuel use, keep the money locally; there’s a lot of good in what we’re calling modern wood heating.”

But he recognizes that older stoves can cause air pollution issues. About half the wood stoves in Vermont are the older, inefficient and dirtier models.

Nationally, the EPA is pressing ahead with regulations to significantly limit the pollution from newly manufactured residential wood heaters. But some states with the most wood smoke are refusing to go along, claiming that the EPA’s new rules could leave low-income residents in the cold.

Missouri and Michigan already have barred their environmental agencies from enforcing the EPA standards. Vermont does not object to the regulations, but Snyder said the state wants to ensure that the new regulations don’t hurt the state’s wood stove manufacturers.

“We want to support these new thresholds and standards,” Snyder said. “So we’re not pushing back. We just need to think about how we phase it in and how we support these businesses.”

Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin are pushing a bill that would prohibit the Department of Natural Resources from enforcing new national regulations limiting pollution from wood-fired heaters.

Federal data from 2011, the latest available, show Wisconsin was second in the country in fine particle emissions from wood stoves, furnaces and heaters with 32,375 tons.

The bill’s chief author, Rep. David Craig, said in a memo seeking co-sponsors the limits will increase costs for consumers.

A DNR fiscal estimate, however, notes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would likely enforce the limits in Wisconsin if the DNR doesn’t.

The Wisconsin Assembly Environmental and Forestry Committee held a public hearing on the bill on Feb. 19. A spokeswoman for Speaker Robin Vos says he’s still reviewing the legislation.

Disputes over wood heaters have sparked intense emotions— and legal battles — among neighbors. In late January, for example, an Indiana judge rejected a request from Mable and Gary Bowling for a preliminary injunction forcing one of their Rush County neighbors to stop using an outdoor furnace. The Bowlings claimed the smoke was unhealthy; the neighbors claimed the Bowlings had harassed them by repeatedly contacting police or firefighters.

Mable Bowling contends the wood smoke has worsened her asthma and led to other respiratory problems.

“What we’re breathing is slowly killing us,” Bowling, 61, said during a telephone interview occasionally interrupted by coughs.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says fine particle pollution from burnt wood can get deep into people’s lungs, causing breathing troubles.

But burning wood can be cheaper for some rural residents than heating their homes with propane, oil or electricity. A 2008 survey of Vermont wood stove users found that more than half the wood stoves in use were made before 1990 and don’t burn as cleanly or as efficiently as the newer models. Vermont is working on the wood stove equivalent of a “cash for clunkers” program that would provide financial incentives for Vermonters to get clean and efficient modern stoves.

In New Hampshire, the city of Keene frequently gets temperature inversions that cause wood smoke to settle in over the city on cold winter days, triggering poor air quality alerts. In 2010-11, the city offered an incentive that helped scores of residents pay to switch from older, less efficient and higher-polluting stoves to newer ones that met more stringent standards.

“We want people to have the choice and, in fact in New Hampshire, biomass heat sources are really important,” said W. Rhett Lamb, the city’s planning director. “There’s no doubt that the newer stoves produce a lot less particulate matter. In an ideal world, everybody would have the same stove that produces more BTUs and less pollution. But we don’t want to send out the message that we think burning wood is bad because we think it’s good.”

Gary Spalding, who works at Embers Stove & Fireplace Shop in South Portland, Maine, and spent 35 years in the industry, said wood stove emissions can be dramatically reduced with newer stoves.

Spalding said he anticipates wood stoves will remain popular in the northern New England because of “the warm glow in the living room.”

Associated Press writers Rik Stevens in Concord, New Hampshire, and Patrick Whittle in Portland, Maine contributed to this report.

A look at emission numbers

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has adopted new rules limiting the amount of fine particle emissions from residential wood stoves, furnaces and heaters. Here’s a look at the Top 10 states in total fine particle emissions, and per capita emissions, from residential wood burning. Figures are from 2011, the latest year for which the EPA has statistics.

Total emissions are listed in tons. Per capita emissions are listed in pounds per person.

TOTAL EMISSIONS

1. Michigan: 39,691

2. Wisconsin: 32,901

3. Minnesota: 30,012

4. Pennsylvania: 23,634

5. New York: 22,939

6. Ohio: 21,635

7. California: 18,693

8. Washington: 17,070

9. Oregon: 15,034

10. Indiana: 12,146

PER CAPITA EMISSIONS

1. Vermont: 22.80

2. Wisconsin: 11.53

3. Minnesota: 11.22

4. New Hampshire: 9.85

5. Maine: 9.51

6. Michigan: 8.04

7. Oregon: 7.77

8. Idaho: 5.63

9. Washington: 5.00

10. Iowa: 3.77