Spare the Air Days

Spare the air days are actually a very uncommon thing which probably comes to a surprise to most people who listen to the radio or read newspapers in Sonoma County.

The Bay area quality control board would like you to think that each and every day is what they call a spare the air day. They would like nothing more than to do away with wood burning all together. The local media simply reports with the facts that they are given.

Actually there are very very few days that actually qualify as spare the air days and there are actually more days that qualify during the spring/summer season then during the winter spare the air period.

The regulation with regard to wood stoves in flawed in many ways but no more clear than that on a 90 degree day no wood stoves are being burned but the particulate matter in the air somewhere is above the level causing an alert.

If wood stoves and wood burning are the #1 on the list of things that pollute, why on a day when none are burning does the alert go off and on a 40 degree day in the winter with thousands burning the air is just fine and no alarms are blazing throughout the Bay area.

If you actually go to look at the amount of days that actually were spare the air days last winter it would shock most people who think that they know. I believe that there were around 5 total. There has been more than that this summer without any wood stoves burning.