Sounds like city people in the country again
Sure glad we don't have any whinny neighbors. Heck my nearest neighbors are family, and they each have OWBs!!!! Some people will just complain about anything.
Just as there is a right tool for every job, there is a right heating source for every living situation.
There is no question that OWBs generally smoke a lot more than EPA woodstoves and furnace add-ons. So given this reality, the folks who choose to install OBWs need to be aware of the proximity to neighbors, prevailing winds, the type of wood they burn, etc. If you live in the country on a chunk of acreage, that's one thing, but if you live on 2 acres immediately adjacent to another neighbor, well, that's an entirely different situation.
Based on the proclamations of OWB proponents, posted here and elsewhere, the "ability" of OWBs to handle green and junk wood at the cost of smoke and inefficiency will be the undoing of the OWB movement. The fact that your OWB can burn crap doesn't mean that it should be used for that purpose when such conduct needlessly creates a nuisance for others.
There is a fundamental difference between a pre-existing farming operation and the use of an OWB, both in practical terms and under most state statutes. Even if there wasn't, the argument could be made against the person who engaged in farming practices which were not best practices, just as is being made against wood burners who are similarly engaged in needlessly offensive burning behavior. Both behaviors could properly be enjoined by the courts, and likely would be.
If the neighbor was burning tires, we wouldn't have any problem agreeing that the smoke billowing on to neighboring land was a nuisance. The fact that the OWB is used to heat a home does not materially change the standard by which we would review the nuisance of the smoke and particulate matter deposited on neighboring parcels, at least so far as I can see.
Unfortunately you don't have a clue because the pollution from sitting in traffic and your indoor air along with that released by AEP is far worse than the local OWB.
Now, I'm not saying I disagree with canning the clown with the jacuzzi but if you speaking about banning something due to 'pollution' you are bombarded by far more everyday than your miniscule exposure to some OWB woodsmoke though I'm sure you know that diesel exhaust and subway particulates are KNOWN to cause arteriosclerios? You sure don't worry about that, do you?
I bet nobody in those homes smokes around those children they are so worried about and they have hepa filters to remove the indoor air pollution as well as same filters in their cars when sitting in traffic?
You can rail all you want on how righteous those people were, but in the grand scheme of things they are IGNORANT as to what the problem really is in addition to the fact that wood burners are an ASSET to reduction in reliance on foreign oil as well as reduction of methane which is a far more dangerous greenhouse gas released by termites and bacteria breaking down the wood that OWB or any woodburner isn't burning.
People just have to be able to have something petty to bit+ch about and try to push somebody around to make them feel important and smart and you lie down and let them or fight back.
BTW, their dogs never bark, do they? What's the difference between noise pollution and wood burner pollution? Pollution is pollution and if you are excising one you should be excising all which includes elimination of dog ownership.
Stand up or be stood on.
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