San Francisco Schtuff

In an effort to protect public health, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District will open the Winter Spare the Air season on Sunday, November 1, and begin enforcing a regulation that restricts wood burning in the Bay Area through February 28, 2010.

Between November 1, 2009, and February 28, 2010, the Air District will declare a Winter Spare the Air Alert when air pollution is forecast to reach unhealthy levels. During a Winter Spare the Air Alert, the use of wood-burning devices, including fireplaces, pellet stoves, wood stoves and outdoor fire pits, is forbidden. There are expected to be, on average, approximately 15-20 Winter Spare the Air Alerts during the season.

This season, Winter Spare the Air Alertswill be declared the day prior to the alert going into effect. Each day by 2 p.m., the Air District will issue an air quality forecast. If air quality is forecast to be unhealthy, a Winter Spare the Air Alertwill be called for the next day. The Alert will be in place for 24 hours – one calendar day – active from midnight-to-midnight.

Those who burn during a Winter Spare the Air Alert will receive a warning for the first violation and a second violation is subject to a $400 ticket. The ticket amount will increase with any subsequent violations, depending on the severity of the infraction. Residents and businesses that burn wood as their only source of heat are exempt from the regulation.

Under the new rule, only EPA-certified wood stoves or fireplace inserts, pellet stoves, or natural gas devices can be sold or installed
in new construction or remodels. The new rule also places year-round prohibitions on excessive smoke, and on the burning of
garbage and other harmful materials in fireplaces and wood stoves.

Check before you burn:

• web: baaqmd.gov or sparetheair.org
• phone: 1-877-4-NO-BURN
• email alerts: www.sparetheair.org