As part of the District's continuing effort to protect public health and clean the air we breathe, starting at 10 am on Thursday October 13, 2011 we will be providing financial incentives to home owners who wish to upgrade their wood burning home heater with an EPA Certified stove or fireplace insert. The incentives will be available in the form of discounts from participating hearth products dealers.

Information about the program is provided below:

• Press Release
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
• Application
• List of Participating Dealers
• Recycling Certificate

Wintertime wood burning for residential home heating can be a significant source of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution both in your home and in your community. This page contains information on how you can burn more efficiently in order to reduce local smoke accumulation as well as home heating costs.

In many areas, wood smoke can accumulate during the winter months when wood burning increases. This is especially true in rural mountain communities such as the San Lorenzo Valley in Santa Cruz County where wood burning is a common source of home heating.

Wood smoke contains particulate matter, gases, and even toxic compounds. These pollutants can cause or aggravate health effects including eye, nose, and throat irritation as well as respiratory disease.

The following links contain information on clean and efficient wood burning:

• ARB Wood Burning Handbook
• EPA Burn Wise Tips
• Wet Wood is a Waste
• Your Old Wood Stove's Dirty Little Secrets
• Current List of EPA Certified Wood Stoves and Inserts
• EPA's Burn Wise website

Concurrent with the Change-Out Program, the Monterey Bay Unified Air Pollution Control District will be conducting air monitoring in Santa Cruz County to quantify wood smoke levels in the areas of Scotts Valley, Felton, and Ben Lomond through the winter months. The District will be using continuous monitors with telemetry which will allow for the collection and remote observation of hourly readings of PM2.5 from each instrument. With this data, hourly, daily, and weekly trends can be examined, as well as times for peak wood burning. Meteorological sensors attached to the monitoring instruments will also monitor air movement and temperature.

The monitoring is part of a new permanent wintertime program to characterize ambient PM2.5 levels in areas of known or suspected wood smoke impacts. Over time, the results will help assess reductions in PM2.5 brought about by the change-outs, as well refine future wood stove change-out efforts.