Vt. may be first state to regulate wood boilers
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By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press Bureau - Published: April 5, 2007
MONTPELIER — Vermont is poised to become the first state in the country to adopt emission regulations for outdoor wood boilers following the approval of a major new environmental rule by a legislative committee Wednesday.
The Vermont Legislature's Administrative Rules Committee voted 6-2 to adopt the new regulation, which sets an emission standard lower than the voluntary limit adopted by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Sen. Mark MacDonald said the new law will ensure that outdoor boilers are cleaner and more efficient in the future.
"The state believes that this standard is achievable for the industry," MacDonald said. "We've listened to the concerns of manufacturers and their lobbyists, but this new rule will result in cleaner-burning boilers."
Under the new law, outdoor wood boilers in Vermont will be restricted to emitting up to 0.44 pounds of particulate matter — the soot and other items released from the process — per million BTU heat input.
State environmental officials said boilers now in use across the state release about three to four times as much particulates in the air. Earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency issued voluntary limits for new boilers at 0.6 pounds.
The EPA first considered .44 pounds as the limit for its federal voluntary program, but arrived at the .6 regulation as a compromise with the industry. Still, they applauded the state of Vermont for pushing for the tighter limit.
"EPA and the states believe it to be an appropriate level for an emission standard based on the transfer of currently available control technologies employed in other wood combustion devices," the agency wrote to the state in a letter last month.
The politics surrounding outdoor wood-fired boilers were a hot topic in recent weeks in Montpelier, as supporters espoused that the new regulation was necessary to stop the allegedly dirty emissions from the increasingly popular appliances.
But opponents of the change — including the industry manufacturing and selling the appliances and some of the approximately 2,500 outdoor boiler owners in Vermont — worried that the rule was the first step toward an outright ban.
Ed Larson, a lobbyist for Minnesota retailer Central Boiler, said the industry does not have a problem with regulation. But nothing on the market now could adhere to the emission standard passed by the state, he said.
"We felt that the state needed to slow down a little," Larson said. "During a time when we're talking about using renewable and relying less on foreign oil, these outdoor boilers are a great benefit for Vermont."
But Jeff Wennberg, commissioner of the state department of environmental conservation, disagreed. Two models have passed the emissions test, he said, and the industry has until March 31, 2008, to begin adhering to the new limit.
Outdoor boilers now in use across the state would be grandfathered in, Wennberg added. And dealers with older boilers can continue selling them as long as the stock was purchased before Oct. 1, he explained.
"We're not looking to ban them. We're not looking to take these away from people already using them," Wennberg said. "But it was clear that something needed to be done to regulate these messy and dirty boilers."
Opponents of the change did lobby hard using the mantra that the new law was a first step toward a complete ban. Northwest Manufacturing Inc., a Minnesota manufacturer of the boilers, ran advertisements this week in newspapers proclaiming that, "Your right to burn wood may end this Wednesday!"
Chuck Gragner, the owner of the 120-employee company, said he was worried that the law would have a domino effect and inspire other states to pass similar restrictions. He worried that change could hurt his business.
The newspaper ads — which also ask, "Is this the first step to eliminating wood burning in Vermont?" — were meant to attract attention to the issue, Gragner said.
"It was an attention-getter," he said. "But we do feel that this possibly is the first step toward more action."
Contact Daniel Barlow at Daniel.Barlow@rutlandherald.com.
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