Wood heat warms home, pollutes air

From the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, on Saturday, December 6, 2008:

In early winter 2008, Fairbanks [Alaska] has had some of the worst air quality ever recorded, according to Jim Conner, an air quality specialist for the Fairbanks North Star Borough.

“We exceeded (federal air quality) standards in October this year for the first time,” Conner said. “It looks like we’ll have twice as many exceedances this year, about 50 (days).”

The bad air — caused by tiny floating particles from burned fuels — will lead to the Environmental Protection Agency in December to declare the borough as “out of attainment” of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

This means that Alaskans will have three years to come up with a plan on how to solve Fairbanks’ air problems, or the federal government will draw up a plan for Fairbanks.

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