Wood burning fireplaces raise air quality concerns

With temperatures beginning to drop, many people are warming up by using their fire places.

Air pollution managers said burning wood can be a hazard to your health. With unseasonably low temperatures more and more people are trying to stay warm by using wood burning fireplaces.

“Of course when its cold people use wood stoves fire places to keep warm. With the El Nino we thought we would have more moderate temperatures,” said Air Pollution Control Officer Richard Stedman.

But that’s not the case. Air pollution control officer Richard Stedman said our air quality reduces each night, because of smoke from wood burning fireplaces.

“At night when the cold weather settles on us we get inversions which traps pollutants in the valley area,” said Stedman.

While burning wood might not be the best for the environment many view it as a cost effective option.

Homeowner Jessica Oleson said she chooses to burn rather than turn up the thermostat.

“We’ve been in the house for 15 years and it’s a really old fireplace. It burns really hot. So it actually heats this old part of the house pretty well. So starting in the winter we usually do it two to three times a week,” said Oleson.

Oleson said while wood is a messy option, her family really enjoys the ambiance that comes from burning wood.

“My children, of course being 17 and 15, really enjoy the firewood but actually they’ve been bugging me since it started getting cool saying when are we going to do a fire when are we going to do a fire? But it is messy and that’s the downside of it,” said Oleson.

Monterey Bay Unified Air pollution Control District said there are incentives for people to switch to gas in the San Lorenzo valley. There’s no policy set in place for the Monterey area quite yet.

“We don’t really have a specific policy. We tell people that they should burn cleanly and wisely. And be aware of the smoke that may impact others,” Stedman said.

Local air quality managers said they hope to roll out an incentive program for homeowners in Monterey County within the next year.