Wood-fired boilers won't get an exemption

Most wood-fired boilers in Linn County will have to be modified within three years.

The Linn County Supervisors backed away from an earlier push to exempt existing boilers from new regulations after the Iowa Department of Natural Resources threatened sanctions against the local air quality department. The new ordinance must be read publicly twice more and will go into effect Oct. 1.

Owners of wood-fired boilers -- which can cost $10,000 or more -- won't have to lose their investment. In general, they must raise the smokestacks on the boilers so their neighbors aren't affected too much by the smoke, and they must do so within three years.

On property zoned residential, the smokestack must be 200 feet from the nearest structure, or else reach to two feet above the peak of the neighbor's roof, up to 25 feet high. On property zoned agricultural, the smokestack must be 500 feet from the nearest habitable building, or at least 15 feet high.

Supervisors delayed the second reading of the ordinance that would regulate wood-fired boilers, after the DNR stepped in and said it might sanction the county if they gave exemptions to existing boilers.

The supervisors voted 3-1 to amend the ordinance to get rid of exemptions, and then to approve the new version. Supervisor Brent Oleson voted against the ordinance, and Supervisor Linda Langston was absent.

Linn County Public Health initially asked supervisors to approve the same ordinance that was approved Wednesday. Supervisors, under pressure from owners of the boilers, added an exemption to the ordinance for those who already have boilers.

Within a week the head of the Air Quality Division of the DNR was at a supervisor meeting threatening to pull funding to Linn County's air quality division.

Oleson had threats of his own at the meeting Wednesday, pointing out that backyard fire pits may be the next target of government's regulatory powers. Linn County Air Quality Specialist Jim Hodina said that in fact, Polk County has already outlawed fire pits, but the code here already explicitly regulates them.