Board of Health Approves Boiler Ordinance

May 27, 2009

The Board of Health approved an ordinance conditionally exempting installed wood boilers and heaters less than 500,000 Btu in size from the current particulate emission standard of 0.6 lb/MMBtu. The proposal and three amendments were considered. The Board of Health approved two of three amendments; the amendments limiting stack height to 25 feet and to including the zoning designation Village Residential (VR) passed and the amendment extending more stringent residential standards to agricultural properties adjacent to residential properties failed.

The ordinance as passed is available by clicking here. The next step in the rule development process is a public notice, hearing, and vote by the Board of Supervisors, which will occur in June. If passed by the Board of the Supervisors, the ordinance would become effective immediately but subject to review and approval by the U.S. EPA.

A summary of the requirements for units to qualify for the exemption are presented in the following table.

	Residential	Non-Residential
Zoning	Incorporated properties or properties zoned Urban Service Residential (USR), Rural Residential 1, 2, or 3 (RR1, RR2, RR3), Village Residential (VR) and Village Mixed-Use (VM).	All other property zoning designations including agricultural (AG)
Setback	200 feet to the near residential property line unless the owner chooses to meet the stack height requirement below.	None
Stack Height	If less than 200 feet to another residential property, then 2 feet above the peak of any neighboring residential building within 300 feet of the boiler but no less than 15 feet and no more than 25 feet above ground.	15 feet, but only if the boiler is within 500 feet of a neighboring occupied structure
Fuel Limit	18,000 lbs of wood (5 cords of wood) and operate only from September 15 to May 15.	54,000 lbs of wood (15 cords of wood). The unit may operate year-round.