Draft Air Quality Ordinances

Ordinance for Residential Wood Boilers and Heater

The Board of Health approved and sent to the Board of Supervisors an ordinance exempting currently installed fuel burning equipment that emit more particulate matter than the existing regulatory standard of 0.6 lb/MMBtu.  Primarly known as Outdoor Wood Boilers, but also includes wood furnaces, the Board of Health approved an exemption for boilers and heaters equal to or less than 500,000 Btu per hour providing that the following conditions are met.

	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), or 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 greater than 25 above ground.	15 feet 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).  Can operate year-round.

Complete text of the ordinance approved by the Board of Health


Rule Development Historical Documents

On May 27, the Linn County Board of Health will consider the following proposed ordinance that provides a conditional exemption to currently install wood heaters, including outdoor wood boilers.  Future installations will be required to meet the existing standard for particulate matter emissions of 0.6 lb/MMBtu.  The Board of Health meeting will begin at 4:30 pm.  Public Comment is scheduled to begin at 5:00 pm.  The meeting will be held at the Roosevelt Middle School Auditorium (across the street from the Public Health Offices).

• May 27 Proposed OWB Ordinance to Linn County Code of Ordinance, Chapter 10, Air Quality
• Amendments for Consideration to May 27 Proposed Ordinance
• Proposed OWB Ordinance with Amendments Included  
• Summary of Proposed Ordinance in a Memo to Board of Health
• Map of Unicorporated Linn County Properties Zoned Residential (USR, RR1, RR2, RR3, VR, and VM) (This document is large [1.4 MB] and may be slow to download.) Please contact Air Quality Division if you would like a copy emailed.

You may submit written comments through May 26th.  Written comments will be forwarded to Board of Health members upon receipt.  If approved, the ordinance will be brought before the Board of Supervisors where three readings of the ordinance will be made.  The ordinance would only become effective upon Board of Supervisors approval.

A draft ordinance was presented to the Board of Health on March 19, 2009.  The Board of Health requested the Public Health Staff to consider developing a grandfathering provision for existing units. Two Town Hall Meetings and several individual and group meetings have since been held.  The following information was being presented to the Board of Health at their April 22 meeting.  A revised ordinance was not being considered at that meeting.