PORTLAND, Ore. – There's nothing like a crackling fire on a chilly day. But Oregon is one of seven states asking for more federal attention to the air pollution from residential woodstoves and heaters.

A lawsuit filed last week says it's been years since the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) strengthened its standards for new woodstoves, under the Clean Air Act.

Communities from Burns to Portland are affected by high levels of soot in the air, and the EPA says one reason is burning wood for heat.

Marcia Danab, public affairs specialist with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), says that doesn't mean you can never have a fire in the fireplace.

"If you burn dry, seasoned, untreated wood, that's the key thing,” she explains. “The wood needs to be dry, and never burn treated wood because that puts out harmful chemicals. And also, never burn garbage."

Danab says one way to tell how clean your fire is, is to go outside at night and look at what's coming out of the chimney. You should see waves of heat if it's burning clean, instead of smoke.

Oregon was the first state to require certification for woodstoves, but the lawsuit charges that the federal rules don't address some of the most popular types.

Danab says pellet stoves tend to burn cleaner than even the newer woodstoves. And for fireplaces, the DEQ recommends using the pre-made carbon neutral fire logs.

"They're usually made from recycled sawdust and wax,” she says. “They are a user-friendly solution for building a fire in a fireplace, and are significantly cleaner-burning alternatives to using firewood."

In Utah they're wrestling with the same air pollution problem, and a group of doctors there is recommending a complete ban on wood burning in urban areas, claiming wood smoke is more toxic than cigarette smoke.

Dr. Brian Moench, president of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, says studies suggest wood smoke may contribute up to 40 percent of the particulate pollution in major Western cities.

"We're suggesting that we need to start thinking of wood smoke in the exact same terms as we now think of cigarette smoke in public places, which we have prohibited somewhere around 20 to 25 years ago," he says.

In Utah, the proposed ban would apply both indoors and outdoors, and cover home heating and barbecue pits.



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A new film documents the 2018 battle between Colorado environmentalists and the oil and gas industry over proposed fracking regulations.

The film also documents a grassroots effort by Colorado Rising to pass a ballot initiative which would create a 2,500-foot setback for all hydraulic fracturing wells in the state, particularly in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Sarah Schulte, organizing committee member of GreenFaith Boulder County, which recently previewed the film for about 100 members, said the film has a strong message.

"What probably makes the film pretty dramatic and kind of shocking is the length to which oil and natural gas industries in Colorado set out to thwart them," Schulte pointed out. "Not only with some of the tactics you might expect, but also some kind of more nefarious tactics sabotaging their signature gathering, for example."

In the end, the petroleum industry defeated the measure after a $50 million campaign opposing it. Schulte acknowledged Colorado Rising raised only $1 million for its campaign. After the election, the state adopted a 1,000-foot drilling setback from schools and residential property lines.

Hydraulic fracturing, commonly called fracking, involves drillers injecting a mixture of chemicals underground to break up the shale and free the oil. The chemicals used in the process, which are sometimes toxic, can pollute groundwater and make the surrounding land unstable.

Schulte emphasized the movie had a powerful effect on the group's members.

"I think most people were pretty angry and maybe even a little sad after seeing how these kinds of politics play out in Colorado," Schulte observed. "They asked questions like what can we do next? How do you keep going when it's so difficult to fight such a big and powerful industry?"

The film, Fracking the System: Colorado's Oil and Gas Wars, is currently being previewed by select audiences. It has won the "Spirit of Activism" award at the Colorado Environmental Film Festival
and the "Environmental Award" at the 2024 DOCUTAH International Film Festival.

As part of an effort to restore the Mississippi River delta, an organization is collaborating with nature to address environmental challenges.

The Big Muddy is the second-longest river in North America, flowing more than 2,300 miles.

Simone Maloz, campaign director for the group Restore the Mississippi River Delta, said the coalition uses nature-based solutions to help tackle some of the river's environmental problems in Louisiana and Mississippi.

"We use the power and the sediment the river provides to help us to put solutions into place," Maloz explained. "For example, we might have an area of wetlands that needs to be nourished with freshwater sediment, we can tap into that wonderful resource that we have."

Maloz pointed out some farmers are turning to nature-based solution, using cover crops like clover or other plants to protect the soil. Cover crops typically grow in between primary crops, or are planted in the offseason to help keep nutrients on the ground so they do not become toxic in the water as runoff.

Maloz emphasized nature-based solutions are key to building resilient communities, which she said are those communities thinking about how to plan for climate change, such as floods, droughts, and rising sea levels, wildfires, hurricanes and coastal threats.

"What we know about resilient communities, whether you're on the coast, or whether you're not on the coast, is about how you can brace yourself for these impacts and how you can more quickly recover," Maloz stressed. "We know that when you include nature in those plans, it helps you to better do that."

Maloz added her group is involved in various projects along the Mississippi River, using sediment to replenish marshes, rebuild ridges and barrier islands and create habitats for migratory birds.


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The Iowa Environmental Council has petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to invoke emergency powers to protect sensitive soil and groundwater in northeast Iowa.

The council is holding a public webinar today and wants the EPA to address groundwater contamination in northeast Iowa's so-called Driftless region. The groundwater there has a well-documented history of nitrate contamination.

Alicia Vasto, director of water program for the council, said the highly porous and soluble karst soil prevalent in the region is susceptible to contamination from centralized animal feeding operations.

"We did some analyses of private well data and public water systems and found that there was a lot of contamination of nitrate in those drinking water sources," Vasto reported. "The state has really failed to take action meaningfully that would address those problems."

The state has said it is constantly working to upgrade groundwater quality standards and is in the process of taking public input on creating yet another set of rules.

Vasto emphasized since the state has failed to address the water safety concerns for decades, the council and a coalition of other environmental groups have, in effect, gone above the state's head to the EPA, asking the agency to implement an emergency stop gap on nitrate pollution the way the agency did in neighboring Minnesota last year.

"We're asking that at, at minimum, the EPA would require the state of Iowa to do what they required the state of Minnesota to do under the same petition," Vasto explained. "Because the geology of northeast Iowa is the same as of southeast Minnesota."

The council's recommendations include calling on the EPA to create a communications plan with residents whose water could be at risk, create a drinking water sampling plan, and establishing a thorough permitting process for centralized animal feeding operations.


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