MISSOULA - Missoula City-County Air Pollution Control Board (Air Board) approved the proposed changes to the Missoula City-County Air Pollution Control Program at the April 21 meeting. The proposal has been sent to the Missoula County Commissioners and then on to Montana Department of Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency for review and approval.
The proposal creates a Seeley Lake Wood Stove Zone where only the cleanest and most efficient stoves can be installed. The purpose of the wood stove rule in Seeley is designed to minimize air quality impacts from new development and wood stove installations. New stoves will be required to meet the 2020 EPA standards of 70% energy efficiency. Wood burning devices currently in place are grandfathered in and acceptable at this time.
Many other changes proposed to the countywide program address corrections to spelling, reference errors and changes to align the location program with state and federal rules or edits for clarification. Substantive changes include restricting recreational fires during air alerts (chapter 4), allowing conditional outdoor burning permits in the Missoula Air Stagnation Zone with approved technology (chapter 7), discontinuing gasoline oxyfuel program in the event Missoula receives authorization to cease the program (Chapter 10) and specifying a person has 15 days to request a hearing to dispute an administrative review decision (chapter 14).
Missoula City-County Health Department Air Quality Specialist Benjamin Schmidt gave a brief presentation of the rule changes to the air board. Schmidt said this proposal has been in process since late 2019 but was paused in 2020 due to COVID. Since it had been two years, the Board of Health decided to reopen public comment.
“Even though this was a continuation of the hearing, we decided there was a big enough break we needed to give the public an opportunity to participate again,” Schmidt said. There were the required public notices in the Missoulian previously and another two public notices in 2022 before this hearing.
“Another layer I should mention,” Schmidt said. “We gave these proposed rules to the state DEQ, Department of Air Quality and the EPA for comment. We were trying to give them a heads up of what we were thinking to see if we could get any comment back proactively before actually getting to those steps.”
The board asked Schmidt about stoves currently in place in Seeley Lake and asked if there was an incentive for current wood stove users to change out to the newer models.
Schmidt confirmed that wood stoves and other devices currently in place are grandfathered in at this time. The proposal only effects new home construction and the change out of an existing device must meet the new standards.
In 2012 residents in Seeley Lake took advantage of a Wood Stove Change Out Program. There was improvement in the air quality, Schmidt said. There are some funds left from the Wood Stove Exchange but the qualification to use those funds are strict and only for Seeley Lake area residents in the Wood Stove Zone.
The only public comment the board received on the proposal was from a Rattlesnake Area resident regarding the Missoula Air Stagnation Zone.
The board voted to approve the proposed rule changes as presented.
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