Non-conforming fireplaces, road dust potential targets of APCD

The San Diego Air Pollution Control District has adopted an implementation schedule for proposed particulate matter control measures, including potential regulations on residential wood combustion and dust from unpaved roads.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors, which also acts as the board of the Air Pollution Control District, approved the implementation schedule on a 5-0 vote December 14. The supervisors also adopted a resolution approving the staff report “Measures to Reduce Particulate Matter in San Diego County.”

“Basically what we’re doing is we’re telling the board that we’re going to look at two measures that the state has identified for possible action locally,” said Richard Smith, the acting air pollution control officer for the San Diego Air Pollution Control District. “Right now all we’re saying is that these are two measures we want to look at.”

State legislation enacted in 2003 accelerates progress toward attaining clean air standards for particulate matter. San Diego County has attained Federal standards for particulate matter but not the more stringent state standards, and nearly all of California is designated as not attaining state standards. The 2003 legislation requires local air pollution control districts to review a statewide list compiled by the California Air Resources Board which identifies the most readily available, feasible and cost-effective particulate matter emission control measures. Each district must evaluate the list and select the most promising measures for local implementation based on the nature and extent of particulate pollution in the district. The districts are also required to adopt an implementation schedule after prioritizing the measures based on their cost-effectiveness and effects on public health, air quality and emission reduction.

The staff report evaluates the potential measures, and a majority of those measures are already being implemented in San Diego County to address ozone, which is caused by many of the same sources as particulate matter. However, the Air Pollution Control District lacks category-specific measures to reduce particulate emissions from residential wood combustion and from fugitive dust generated from construction sites and unpaved roads. Other air quality districts are implementing those measures, and similar measures may be feasible for San Diego County.

“We’re going to be looking into the reasonableness and the cost-effectiveness and the feasibility of actually adopting a rule,” Smith said. “If we feel it’s appropriate then we’ll bring it back to the board and ask the board to adopt a rule.”

Smith noted that the APCD would hold workshops and obtain public input before recommending a specific rule to the board.

The statewide list identified 103 regulatory and non-regulatory measures affecting stationary sources, area sources, transportation-related programs and incentive programs. Existing rules in the San Diego district already address 59 of those measures, another 17 are not a significant source of emissions in San Diego County, and eight measures would not significantly reduce emissions in the county and were removed from further consideration. The remaining 19 measures address residential wood combustion and fugitive dust sources.

Three primary measures for residential wood combustion will be evaluated. The first measure would require non-conforming wood stoves and fireplace inserts (enclosed wood-burning appliances used for space heating) to be replaced with conforming units upon the sale or transfer of real property containing those units. Since 1992 all such stoves and inserts have been built to US Environmental Protection Agency standards, and the regulation would address only those appliances built before 1992.

The regulation would apply only when a property is sold or otherwise transferred. “We’re not chasing down people with old wood stoves,” Smith said.

The regulation would not address conventional fireplaces. “We have no intention of dealing with them,” Smith said.

The second measure for residential wood combustion would require that firewood labeled and sold as “seasoned wood” have a moisture content by weight of no more than 20 percent. Moisture levels higher than 20 percent create smoldering and thus additional smoke emissions.

The third measure would prohibit the burning of materials not designated as fireplace fuel in a fireplace or wood-burning appliance. Such materials include garbage, treated wood, paints and paint solvents and plastic or rubber products.

The potential ban on burning painted wood and other items faces the issue of how well it could be enforced. “That will be something that we have to sort out,” Smith said.

In addition to the regulations, the APCD also plans a non-regulatory public information campaign to raise awareness of the air quality impacts of wood combustion and to encourage better residential wood burning practices and voluntary use of lower-emitting heating devices.

The timetable for the wood combustion regulations calls for implementation during 2006. The rules to control fugitive dust are expected to be enacted in 2007. Most local jurisdictions regulate construction activities to minimize fugitive dust through grading ordinances and permits, stormwater pollution prevention plans and California Environmental Quality Act mitigation measures, but the APCD still receives numerous complaints about fugitive dust and thus desires improved compliance tools and possible additional control requirements.

The APCD currently must respond to fugitive dust complaints using an APCD rule covering public nuisances. A significant number of people must be impacted and the district must verify the impacts even if municipal dust control requirements are not met. An APCD regulation on dust control will allow more immediate authority when responding to complaints.

During the rule development phase, primary fugitive dust sources and existing local requirements for fugitive dust control will be evaluated. A proposed rule will be developed which reflects existing local requirements, and possible additional requirements will be included if deficiencies in local requirements are found. The APCD will consider establishing a range of fugitive dust control techniques as compliance options, which would allow project owners to select and implement the most suitable options based on specific project characteristics.

The intent is to focus on dirt construction roads rather than unpaved private streets. “That’s one we’re going to have to be very careful when we develop our recommendations,” Smith said. “We don’t see us regulating private dirt roads unless they’re causing a public nuisance. That’s not our intent at all.”

It is theoretically possible that the APCD could require the paving of a private dirt road. “If they’re causing a fine particle problem then we would be able to take action,” Smith said.

Smith noted that if a private dirt road was found to be causing problems, putting water or a surfactant on the roadway to suppress dust could possibly be an alternative to a requirement to pave the road.

The regulations would also allow the APCD to regulate dirt racetracks if the dirt is causing a particulate matter emission problem, although dirt tracks are normally watered down to reduce dust and some tracks use clay rather than actual dirt.

The primary focus of the regulation will be construction sites and construction dirt roads. “That would also cover new operations or new activities; for example, on a landfill we could say that the haul roads on a landfill have to be paved to keep the dust out,” Smith said.

Particulate matter monitoring measures concentrations of PM10, or particles 10 micrometers in diameter or smaller, and PM2.5, or particles 2.5 micrometers or smaller in diameter. PM2.5 matter is derived mostly from combustion exhaust products while coarse particles in the 2.5-10 micrometer range derive mostly from uplifted soil and dirt.