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Thursday, April 05, 2007

Environment - Vermont may be first state to regulate outdoor wood fired boilers

From the Rutland, Vermont Herald today:

MONTPELIER — Vermont is poised to become the first state in the country to adopt emission regulations for outdoor wood boilers following the approval of a major new environmental rule by a legislative committee Wednesday.

The Vermont Legislature's Administrative Rules Committee voted 6-2 to adopt the new regulation, which sets an emission standard lower than the voluntary limit adopted by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Sen. Mark MacDonald said the new law will ensure that outdoor boilers are cleaner and more efficient in the future.

"The state believes that this standard is achievable for the industry," MacDonald said. "We've listened to the concerns of manufacturers and their lobbyists, but this new rule will result in cleaner-burning boilers."

Under the new law, outdoor wood boilers in Vermont will be restricted to emitting up to 0.44 pounds of particulate matter — the soot and other items released from the process — per million BTU heat input.

State environmental officials said boilers now in use across the state release about three to four times as much particulates in the air. Earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency issued voluntary limits for new boilers at 0.6 pounds. * * *

Outdoor boilers now in use across the state would be grandfathered in, Wennberg added. And dealers with older boilers can continue selling them as long as the stock was purchased before Oct. 1, he explained.

"We're not looking to ban them. We're not looking to take these away from people already using them," Wennberg said. "But it was clear that something needed to be done to regulate these messy and dirty boilers."

Opponents of the change did lobby hard using the mantra that the new law was a first step toward a complete ban. Northwest Manufacturing Inc., a Minnesota manufacturer of the boilers, ran advertisements this week in newspapers proclaiming that, "Your right to burn wood may end this Wednesday!"

Chuck Gragner, the owner of the 120-employee company, said he was worried that the law would have a domino effect and inspire other states to pass similar restrictions. He worried that change could hurt his business.

Here is a list of some earlier ILB entries on wood fired outdoor boilers.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 5, 2007 03:45 PM
Posted to Environment