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Friday, February 03, 2006
Environment - Gary Post-Trib has another good wood-fired boilers story
Tim Zorn of the Gary Post-Tribune has good coverage again today of the wood-fired boilers issue. His comprehensive Jan. 22nd story is featured in this ILB entry. Some quotes:
[T]he Indiana Department of Environmental Management is considering whether to impose regulations on outdoor wood boilers, IDEM staffer Sean Gorman said Thursday.The wood-fired boilers “have really flown under the radar for quite a while,” Gorman told the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission’s environmental committee.
Wood smoke contains a number of hazardous and lung-damaging pollutants, he said, and wood-burning boilers often are smokier than wood stoves.
But most of the comments IDEM has received so far have opposed prohibitions on wood-burning boilers, Gorman said, and the Indiana General Assembly is considering a bill that would prohibit the state’s Air Pollution Control Board from passing any rule on the boilers. [See this 1/31/06 ILB entry.]
Some NIRPC committee members suggested Indiana join Michigan and several Northeastern states in asking the EPA to devise rules for the wood boilers.
It’s one thing to have a smoky wood fire at a house surrounded by acres of open land, but another matter when the boilers start appearing in subdivisions, Kevin Breitzke said.
Gorman said two southern Indiana towns, Petersburg and Loogootee, have banned the boilers within their limits.
And, he said, the American Society for Testing and Materials is working on manufacturing standards for the boilers.
Jim Donnelly, a LaPorte-area resident who has campaigned against wood-fired boilers since one appeared in his neighborhood, wants the EPA to set national rules.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 3, 2006 10:12 AM
Posted to Environment | Indiana Government