PORT ANGELES — Burn bans for fireplaces will not affect the North Olympic Peninsula, Everwarm Hearth & Home owner Terry McCartney told Port Angeles business leaders Monday.
“Basically, there’s four areas in the state that are in real trouble of being in non-attainment [for fine particulates],” McCartney said at the chamber’s weekly luncheon at the Port Angeles Red Lion Hotel.
“That’s in south Tacoma, Darrington, Yakima, and there’s some areas in Vancouver.
“They just changed it this year so now the only areas in the state where they’re going to call burn bans are those four non-attainment areas.
“So it doesn’t matter to the Olympic Peninsula anymore. We’re OK.
“If you hear it on the news that there’s a burn ban, it doesn’t apply to us any longer.”
Legislation
A bill co-sponsored by state Rep. Steve Tharinger, D-Sequim, and passed by the state Legislature in March restricts uncertified wood-burning stoves, inserts or fireplaces in certain parts of Pierce County.
The law allows a local air pollution control authority or the state Department of Ecology to call a Stage 1 burn ban at a lower threshold than the federal standard.
Tharinger had said the law wouldn’t affect Clallam or Jefferson counties.
“Anytime there’s a burn ban, you can always burn your stove, if that’s the only source of heat you have,” McCartney said.
McCartney, whose business is located east of Port Angeles at 257151 U.S. Highway 101, is triple-certified by the National Fireplace Institute as an expert in wood, gas and pellet products.
He has served on the board of directors of the national Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Association.
McCartney said his industry works closely with the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency and Olympic Region Clear Air Agency on air-quality issues.
The emphasis is to replace old wood stoves with more efficient, cleaner-burning Environmental Protection Agency-certified stoves.
EPA-certified stoves emit fewer than 7.5 grams of smoke per hour.
In Washington state, the standard is 4.5 grams per hour.
“Washington state actually has the toughest emission standards in the nation,” McCartney said.
“Everything I’m reading is they are going to adopt Washington state standards in getting stoves under 41/2 grams per hour,” he said.
“Those are the only stoves we can sell anyhow, so we’re all in favor of that.”
Wood stoves
McCartney said a proposal to ban all wood stoves was tabled by the state Building Code Council, which considered 169 energy code proposals last year.
“Anybody in this room can write in a proposal, and some yahoo wrote in a proposal to ban wood stoves,” he said.
“It got tabled for this year, but it’s just tabled. That doesn’t mean the fight won’t be there next year on wood stoves. These are things that are just constantly going on.”
Burning dry wood in an EPA-certified stove is the best way to keep the air clean, McCartney said.
“The biggest thing is dry wood, and I can’t say it enough,” he said.
“Dry wood, dry wood, dry wood. You have to burn dry wood.
“And by dry wood in the Northwest, we mean wood that’s been cut, split and stacked for a full year off the ground, so it needs to sit on pallets or something.
“It needs to be under a shed roof, not under a tarp, so evaporation isn’t taking place.
“You can gum up a new stove just as easily by burning green wood in it,” he added.
“So it’s dry wood and hot fires — that’s what produces clean air.”
McCartney said wood stoves are still the cheapest way to keep a house warm.
Costs
According to a 2011 analysis, it cost $13 to produce 1 million British thermal units in a wood stove based on $180 per cord.
By comparison, electricity cost $19 to produce the same amount of heat based on $6.50 per kilowatt hour.
Heating from a pellet stove cost $25, and propane gas came in at about $35, McCartney said.
Wood stoves ranked third in a 2011 list of features that people want in their home behind outdoor porches and upgraded kitchens, McCartney added.
He said the new code allows EPA-certified stoves to be used in shops and garages.
“Something that Realtors are happy about is that they’re not going to enforce the removal of non-certified stoves at the time of sale,” McCartney said.
“We know that was a big concern, especially in this housing market.”
Asked if he was concerned opposition of the biomass facilities at the Nippon Paper Industries USA mill in Port Angeles and Port Townsend Paper Corp. would spill over to wood stoves, McCartney said: “That’s why we’ve worked with the federal government and local, state governments to make sure we’ve got the cleanest-burning stoves we can.”
McCartney said a biomass opponent in Port Townsend recently changed out an old wood stove.
“The husband was saying, ‘We don’t really want to do this, but my wife’s going to all the biomass meetings, so we figured we’d better walk our talk,’” McCartney said.
“They changed out and put in a new EPA stove so they could still protest the mills but burn wood in their home because it’s a great way to heat.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.