New burning restrictions, incentives approved for Central Valley

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District has increased the number of no-burn days for everyone except those who buy the cleanest burning stoves and fireplaces.

A new clean burning wood or gas burning stove or fireplace insert costs from $2,000 to $5,000. But the Air Pollution Control District is now offering rebates of from $1,500 to $2,500 if you buy one.

It's great news for Steve Combs who sells them. He said, "The $1,500 incentive is unprecedented in terms of a wood pellet or gas stove; also the long term benefit is now if you put in a wood stove or pellet stove you will be allowed to burn it most of the time."

Gas burning devices have always been exempt from no-burn days, and the clean burning wood models will be exempt from all but a few of the no-burn days imposed during the winter months.

But, everybody else will face even tougher restrictions. In Fresno for example, the number of no-burn days is expected to rise from an average of about 50 to 80 over the winter.

Air District Executive Director Sayed Sandredin told his board members the additional no-burn days will help clean the air of deadly soot, and he doesn't think allowing clean burning devices to burn more will hurt.

But Dolores Weller of the Central Valley Air Quality Coalition doesn't think the incentives make any sense. "So we are allowing more burning even if it is with cleaner devices on dirty days," she said. "We shouldn't be giving people the opportunity to burn more when we have such a serious air pollution problem."

The rebates for clean burning devices start on Friday, but they must be registered with the Air Pollution Control District, and must be inspected or smogged in your home every three years, at your expense. The new no-burn day schedule begins November 1st.

For more information, visit www.valleyair.org.