Fairbanks passes air quality ordinance PENALTIES: Measure weaker than mayor's earlier one.

FAIRBANKS -- The Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly has approved an air-quality ordinance that eliminates emissions fines but keeps penalties for prohibited fuels.

The measure weakened a plan by borough Mayor Luke Hopkins that was approved in June by making changes that reflect a ballot measure approved by voters several months later, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported.

"We diminished an effective air-quality plan," said Hopkins said. "But we still have many portions of a plan."

Under the new plan, enforceable emissions standards were replaced with voluntary standards. But assembly members decided to maintain fines for burning prohibited fuel, including wood with a moisture content of more than 20 percent.

Burning wet wood is one cause of the air pollution with which the borough is grappling. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has given Fairbanks until 2014 to reduce levels of PM 2.5, a tiny but toxic particulate.

Studies have shown wood-burning stoves in the Fairbanks area contribute to the PM 2.5 problem.

"We have been told how to burn wisely," Fairbanks resident Gary Schultz told Assembly members during the debate on the ordinance Thursday.

"Some keep burning green wood," Schultz said. "The bottom line is, these voluntary efforts work with some people but not with everyone."

More than 20 others agreed with Schultz. The main concerns were that pollution would cause health and respiratory problems among children and asthmatics, that it would drive residents out of Fairbanks and that it would hurt the economy.

Schultz's daughter, 9-year-old Linnea, also testified, demonstrating how to test the moisture content of wood by sticking a moisture meter into a log and determining it contained about 20 percent moisture.

Assemblyman Karl Kassel supported the ordinance partly because it could help neighbors of polluters file nuisance complaints.

"I'm not crazy about this ordinance," Kassel said. "I think we've improved what's in here. This is just the beginning."

The plan still prohibits burning materials such as trash, animal carcasses and railroad ties and bans residents from installing old, dirty stoves without borough permission. It removed pellet stoves from the list of banned appliances.


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