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A rise in complaints about smoke prompts the state to propose rules on emissions standards and setbacks.

By CRAIG CROSBY Blethen Maine News Service August 13, 2007

WATERVILLE — Ron Cutter decided to take action two years ago after he burned about 3,600 gallons of heating oil to warm his two Washington Street homes.

Cutter installed an outdoor wood boiler and last year heated his home on about five cords of wood that he bought and a few more he cut and picked from around his home. Overall, Cutter figures he saved about $7,000 in heating costs last year, nearly enough to pay for the new boiler.

"I don't know about you, but I can't afford that," he said. "I had to fight with my wife and son to put it in. Now they think it's the best thing since sliced bread. People don't know until they actually have one."

Cutter is not the only one to turn to an outdoor wood boiler. Tied by underground piping into existing heating and domestic hot water systems, the distinctive pitched roofs that cover the boilers have popped up with increasingly regularity as costs of petroleum have continued to climb, said Jim Brooks, director of the Department of Environmental Protection's Bureau of Air Quality.

With that popularity, however, has come a corresponding increase in the number of complaints that Brooks' office has received from angry neighbors complaining of smoke wafting onto their property.

"People were essentially getting smoked out by their neighbors," Brooks said. "We went from two complaints in 2004 to about 50 or so chronic complaints in 2006 and 2007." With little regulatory authority over the boilers, however, the DEP has acted quickly to establish rules establishing standards for emissions and setbacks and to prevent nuisance smoke. A public hearing on the proposed rules is scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday at the Augusta Civic Center.

The proposed rules would strengthen emission standards in two phases.

The first would require boilers sold after April 1, 2008, to meet a particulate matter emission limit of 0.60 pounds per million Btu. Many boiler companies already have been working toward the 0.60 limit, thanks to a voluntary limit initiated by the EPA, Brooks said.

The limit for new boilers would be lowered to 0.32 pounds per million Btu by April 1, 2010.

The rules also would establish minimum setbacks, mandate smokestack heights that vary according to where the boiler is, and limit burning to material for which the boiler is designed. The practice of burning garbage, tires, chemicals and some other substances would be banned.

While Brooks thinks the new rules will prevent future problems, there are provisions for dealing with complaints against any existing boiler if its smoke crosses into a neighbor's yard for more than 15 minutes in any hour.

"The homeowner could be subject to a cease-and-desist enforcement," Brooks said. "Generally we'll try to see what the problem is and see if it can be fixed."

Brooks said his department will not circle a neighborhood looking for the so-called nuisance boilers, but that provides little comfort to Terry Markham, owner of Best Way Wood Heat in Readfield. The opacity test, which gauges the smoke level in an area based on how much light is limited, is far too subjective, Markham said. "There are too many interpretations," she said. "It could be abused."

She also balks at setback requirements of as much as 200 feet.

"You need a big chunk of land and you need to be centered perfectly to be able to use these," Markham said. "It's going to tie the hands of so many citizens in this state."

Edward Miller, executive director of the American Lung Association of Maine, which pushed the June legislation that prompted the DEP to adopt new rules, believes there should be a limit on where the boilers can be placed.

"Nobody has the right to pollute someone else's air," Miller said. "It's not about burning wood. It's about burning wood responsibly. Our intent is to put these where they're more appropriate and where they won't cause a problem."

Best Way Wood Heat sells...