Seeley Lake Wood Stove Rule Proposal Explained

The Missoula City-County Health Department has started an update on the Missoula City-County Air Pollution Control Program rules. One proposed rule creates a Seeley Lake Wood Stove Zone where only the cleanest and most efficient stoves can be installed. A map of the Seeley Lake Wood Stove Zone has been included in this article. The zone is centered around the Seeley Lake Elementary School where the highest wood stove smoke concentrations are found. This rule would not affect existing stoves but would require new stove installations to meet specific standards.

The purpose of the proposed wood stove rules in Seeley Lake is to minimize air quality impacts from new development and wood stove installations. As technology changes, Missoula County residents will need to install wood stoves that help our mountain valley communities achieve and maintain clean air.

When the Health Department first approached the Seeley Lake community with a proposed wood stove zone in May, we were considering requiring automated wood stoves for new installations in the zone. However, since there are currently few automated wood stoves on the market, we decided an automated wood stove requirement would not provide enough heating options for Seeley Lake residents.

Therefore, the current proposal requires new stove installations to meet the 2015 national New Source Performance Standard of two grams particulate matter emissions per hour and be at least 70 percent efficient. If the woodstove was tested with cordwood, the particulate matter emissions standard is two and a half grams per hour. These emission limits and efficiency requirements will help Seeley Lake residents get more heat from their wood with less smoke than from less efficient devices.

The wood stove market will continue to change as the industry develops cleaner, more efficient appliances. On Oct. 4, 2019, the United States Department of Energy awarded $3 million for research and development on smart automated wood stoves to the wood stove manufacturers MF Fire and ISB Marketing. Some ideas under development to improve wood stove efficiency and emissions include tweaking overall stove design to eliminate the inefficient dead spaces created by rectangular boxes, improving air delivery for the different stages of combustion, incorporating sensors to manage the combustion process, and building stoves that automatically adjust to fuel loads. We look forward to seeing wood stove technology progress and provide more, cleaner options for wood heat users.

On Nov. 21, the Health Department will ask the Missoula City-County Air Pollution Control Board to set a hearing date for the proposed rule changes. The Hearing will most likely be held in January or February of 2020. If you are interested in getting notices about when the hearing will take place, you can ask to be on the Interested Parties list.

To join the Air Quality Interested Parties email list, simply send me an email requesting to join the list. The Interested Parties email list is a great way to find out about upcoming Air Quality Program events and hearings.

If at any time you have questions or comments on the proposed rules, please contact Benjamin Schmidt (406-258-3369 or email bschmidt@missoulacounty.us) at the Missoula City-County Health Department.

From 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7, the Missoula City-County Health Department will host an open house at the Seeley Lake Community Foundation. This open house provides an opportunity for Seeley Lake residents to ask questions or give comments about the proposed air rules. Sanitarians from the Health Department’s food safety and land groups will also be at the open house to answer questions about septic systems or restaurants. The Seeley Lake Community Foundation is located at the former Deer Country Quilts Building, 3150 MT Hwy 83 N.

– Source: Seeley Swan Pathfinder, Article by Benjamin Schmidt