Woodstove Swap Making A Difference

Saturday, March 08, 2008 04:56 PM

MLA Pat Bell, Mayor Colin Kinsley, MLA John Rustad present cheques to Air Quality Implementation Committee Chair Melissa Winfield-Lesk

Prince George, B.C. - The woodstove exhange program that was launched on the 1st of March, is already seeing success. The program isstarting with special rebates and discounts for the first 70 people to turn in their old, inefficient woodstove, for a new model.

Melissa Winfield-Lesk, the Chair, of the City's Air Quality Implementation Committee says so far, about 15 stoves have been turned in and vouchers picked up for a rebate ona new model.

Winfield -Lesk says wood stoves do contribute a "significant amount on Pm2.5" to the Prince George airshed, but she is not prepared to give a number right now. "The Research group is still working on the spaciation modelling and I can't put a number on that , but the sources of PM2.5 are distributed among the mobile sources,residential, commercial and even wind blown dust."

She says while woodsmoke is significant, the emissions have a localized impact with a concentration on neighbourhoods rather than the entire city.

Winfield-Lesk was presented with two cheques, one from the Mayor on behalf of the City for $15 thousand dollars, and MLAs Pat Bell and John Rustad presented one from the Province for 40 thousand dollars for woodstove exchange program.

To visualize the difference between an efficient wood stove and an old one, two wood stoves were fired up with the same kind of wood, and as the video shows, there is a visible difference.

click on photo at right to see the difference

To wrap up the demonstration, MLAs Pat Bell and John Rustad joined Mayor Colin Kinsley and Councilor Don Zurowski in an attempt to demolish an old wood stove.

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Posted on Saturday, March 08, 2008 04:56 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: whitewater on March 8 2008 5:44 PM

Can we trade in our politicians like the wood stoves? Nice video, shows their true mentality. Are we sure they are not the idiots who destroyed the Terry fox statue?

Posted by: Junco on March 8 2008 6:03 PM

What a feel good story...it makes me want to roast a weiner.

Posted by: owl on March 8 2008 6:09 PM

"Winfield -Lesk says wood stoves do contribute a "significant amount on Pm2.5" to the Prince George airshed, but she is not prepared to give a number right now."

Does anyone want to know why she is not prepared to give a number right now?

Posted by: owl on March 8 2008 6:20 PM

Can we take a poll right here? How many here either have a stove of that type that is used for space heating or heating their house or know of people in their circle of friends and aquaintances who have a stove like that?

Count me in for about 20 in such a circle. None have a wood burning stove.

Posted by: tinyapplecork on March 8 2008 6:56 PM

I had a former chimney sweep in the fam once...apparently clean...yep..CLEAN..chimneys have no emissions either. Sweep twice per year. Damn politicians..anything to avoid the REAL issue. It's creosote (sp?) and unseasoned wood that contributes particulates.

*shakes head in disbelief*

Posted by: realitysetsin on March 8 2008 7:22 PM

The silly outdoor wood furnaces seem to smoke more than any other stove.

I have a pellet stove I use, you'd be hard pressed to see any smoke out of it, ever.

Recently I figured I would clean out the exhaust fan piping just in case there was some buildup. I've run about 4 tons through it. I couldn't believe it. It was spotless in there.

Having said that I'm not sold that it saves me money but I do like how I can take the chill out of the bottom floor.

Posted by: faithfulreader on March 8 2008 7:39 PM

Let me get this straight. We are buying back wood burning stoves and yet the City is proposing a wood burning plant in the bowl to heat a handful of buildings? If I have this issue confused, please correct me.

Posted by: Junco on March 8 2008 7:52 PM

You have it correct. Mind boggling isn't it?
An oxymoronish scenario if there ever was one.

Posted by: faithfulreader on March 8 2008 8:03 PM

Just goes to prove my theory about politicians. They get up in the morning, take a STUPID pill and go to work. Be it municipal, provincial or federal. Actually, I'm starting to have more hope in the corruption at the federal level. Provincial and municipal still has a long way to go. Perhaps they're taking a lower dose.

Posted by: faithfulreader on March 8 2008 9:00 PM

This is a very valuable forum. Crime in our city is totally out of control. Can we ask Opinion 250 to have a separate reporting system? Neighbour to neighbour reporting all the stolen vehicles, all the witnessed drug dealings, the beatings, the theft, the home invasions.

Let's get a handle on this. The citizens of P.G. have to take control of our homes and our neighbours.

Our City is becoming very scary. Shootings at Pine Centre at Christmas shopping! Vancouver doesn't even experience this.

Posted by: faithfulreader on March 8 2008 9:03 PM

Posted by: szd on March 9 2008 12:35 AM

To heat downtown all they have to do is take the hot waterpipe from the pulpmill and cross the river on Colin's $12 million bridge and they could heat all of the town. Even save on the snow clearing budget !!!

Posted by: acrider54 on March 9 2008 6:49 AM

Get rid of your woodstove so you can pay us more taxes in Carbon tax to heat your home. We need money for the Olympics.

Posted by: iwundery on March 9 2008 8:45 AM

Good photo op. But here's what is really happening.

The City is going on the offensive about the District Energy System, and they will try to convince those who are sick of our poor air quality that replacing old wood stoves will compensate on a 3:1 ratio for the one ton of particulate they are going to put back in with their wood burning District Energy System.

That's why the province says "while woodsmoke is significant, the emissions have a localized impact with a concentration on neighbourhoods rather than the entire city". She's referring to the Millar Addition neighbourhood of course, where they don't even know how many old wood stoves exist let alone their impact.

There are no numbers on how much this will reduce particulates because they don't have them. The issue is cumulative impact. At a time when the City has been told by the very report the Mayor comissioned that NO NEW SOURCES OF PARTICULATES SHOULD BE INTRODUCED INTO OUR AIRSHED, they turn around and do it. And don't even talk to the citizens.

Besides, the wood stove exchange is a province wide program that would be happening with or without the District Energy System, so for them to want to use this as an 'offset' is not appropriate.

Time to start asking for details folks. The one ton of particulates from the City's new toy is only a start, it's Phase I with more to come. Welcome to an increasingly polluted airshed. No wonder our population never grows while all around us towns are flourishing.

Posted by: Harbinger on March 9 2008 3:24 PM

I don't have a woodstove. I am being held hostage by BC Hydro and Terasen Gas and have to deal monthly with their extortion. (er, I mean billing).

Posted by: Harbinger on March 9 2008 3:26 PM

However, I do like my hot water. I can't comprehend how the Third World exists without it. And personally, I don't really wanna know.

Posted by: thereasonableman on March 9 2008 6:29 PM

What a dog and pony show.

Posted by: Junco on March 10 2008 1:06 AM

"What a dog and pony show"

Don't you mean a bait and switch show.

Let's trade relatively innocuous wood stoves for a wood burning plant spewing polutants in large volumes. Oh and let's put it in the downtown core.

If this goes through I'd love to see a video where we can all see the difference between a household woodstove and its emissions compared to a wood burning plant.

The fifth Estate here we come. The intro� (Poluted air capital of BC, embraces toxic wood burning plant).

Posted by: jonnypg on March 10 2008 2:20 AM

Can we trade in our pulp mills too!!

Posted by: metalman on March 10 2008 8:54 AM

Has anyone tried to calculate the volume of a tonne of particulate that measures less than 2.5 microns? Not me, I don't have a smart enough calculator. Is it bigger than a breadbox? It seems to me that a tonne is one hell of a lot of dust. I do not believe this government, trying to tell us that one tonne is acceptable. How about we DON'T build the plant, and we DO continue to try and see that cleaner burning wood stoves are substituted for the older ones? How about those of us who live outside the city limits? do we get to benefit from the munificence too? Can I get money for my smoky old wood furnace, and credits towards a new, efficient model? Gee, I would like that, it would improve the air quality around my house.
I won't hold my breath.
metalman

Posted by: Harbinger on March 10 2008 4:31 PM

The population of PG have two lungs each. Just create one day a month and have a fete downtown, and all those lungs can filter out the bad air in PG and as a result expel "clean" CO2 with which we can be taxed for adding to global warming ( climate change). That should work to clear the air.

Posted by: pulpworker on March 11 2008 9:23 AM

build a large biomass generator out of the bowl, use the revenue for snow removal, pothole repair, some cops on foot downtown, and a few trips a year to China!