Buckley Rumford Fireplaces
Fireplace Emissions
3/14/10
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Regulation or Ban? 3/14/10 Seven fireplaces have tested to the new ASTM E2558 fireplace emissions standard and have been "qualified" by the EPA under the EPA's new Voluntary Fireplace Program. See http://www.epa.gov/burnwise/participation.html Yet none of these fireplaces has been approved by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) nor in Sacramento nor Sonoma County, nor by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) in Southern California. All these areas which have what look like fireplace emissions regulations seem to have, in fact, banned fireplaces. EPA staff says as much when they say "We can't make local and state regulators cooperate with the Voluntary Program" and imply that these regulators may think they have already banned fireplaces and so won't approve any even if the EPA does qualify them. The EPA also insists that they will include fireplaces in the New Source Pollution Standard (NSPS) program (that has only regulated stoves so far) as soon as within two years. That would mean fireplaces would have to be EPA approved to be built anywhere in the US - but still probably not in areas like the Bay Area that want to ban or establish stricter regulations. Our Rumfords will pass the EPA standard and we could seek EPA qualification but why? Maybe "EPA qualified" would be useful for marketing purposes or to qualify for LEED or Energy Star homes or in areas not yet regulating fireplace emissions but, with the economy down and with no apparent immediate benefit to EPA qualification, we will wait and see. Then there is the Faustian Deal gone wrong. Remember, fireplaces volunteered to be considered "merely decorative" in order to avoid the draconian NSPS force of law measures which include $32,000 per day fines for non compliance and may require efficiency standards. Now that we get the draconian NSPS rules anyway maybe we, who have an efficient radiant heating Rumford fireplace, need to look for another niche. "Merely decorative" is not a very good marketing claim and it might be too easy to ban something that pollutes even a little but has no utility. But that's another story. Have a comment? click here.
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Wood-burning Fireplace Program Progress 10/24/09 After our short Masonry Fireplace (ASTM E06.54.07) task group meeting in Atlanta last week we engaged in a discussion about the future of the EPA "Voluntary Fireplace Program". Gill Wood and Mike Toney from the EPA were there as were several people from the Clay Flue Lining Institute, some masonry heater and metal fireplace representatives and the regulars from ASTM and the Hearth Barbeque & Patio Association. Gill reported that one fireplace had been approved by EPA and that at least two more probably soon will be. He said the EPA wanted to wait until at least two or three fireplaces from different companies had been approved before promoting the program publicly and to the state and local air quality regulators. He thought that would take about two weeks. The EPA Wood-Burning Fireplace Program website has been shifted to http://www.epa.gov/burnwise/participation.html#fireplace where you can see that there are currently six "partners" and one "qualified" "cleaner" fireplace. Gill hastened to add that the EPA wouldn't be able to force local regulators to participate in the "Voluntary Fireplace Program" and that they were free to enforce more stringent standards. Finally the bombshell: Gill said the EPA would like to include fireplaces, along with all other wood-burning appliances, in the New Source Performance Standard for Wood Heaters (NSPS). "But not to worry", said Gill, "That won't happen for at least two more years and, in the meantime, we want to push the 'Voluntary Program' for fireplaces." So, where does that leave us? Why should anyone test a fireplace if it is not likely to be accepted in areas that now ban or regulate fireplaces and are free to ignore us? Turning the question around, why would any of the local regulators participate and allow clean-burning fireplaces when they have all but banned all fireplaces already? I'm not ready to consider the consequences of fireplaces having to be part of the NSPS program but I do know that most of the small stove manufacturers went out of business soon after the EPA began mandatory national regulation of stoves in the late 1970s. My assumption is that, if the EPA brings fireplaces into the NSPS program, the big metal fireplace manufacturers will survive - even prosper - but that will be the end of the individually built custom masonry fireplace business as we know it. Masonry contractors and manufacturers in the masonry industry are too small and too fragmented even to keep up with the paperwork. The next day the stove and pellet stove manufacturers met to discuss developing an ASTM standard to replace the EPA Method 5H in the NSPS now being revised by EPA. I thought I'd learn something about how fireplaces might be regulated if they were in the NSPS process, but the meetings were all business, technically developing a testing standard, talking about filters, etc. In the hallways, however, at least one metal fireplace manufacturer strongly advised not to get involved with NSPS and to try to make the Voluntary Fireplace Program work. With the big NSPS motivator at our heels, let's go back to the questions:
(2) What can we do to encourage state and local regulators to participate in the EPA Voluntary Fireplace Program and allow clean-burning fireplaces?
We might propose, for example, that retrofitting or replacing existing fireplaces with clean-burning fireplaces would reduce their overall emissions. Maybe if a person is remodeling they could be allowed to replace an existing fireplace with an EPA approved fireplace. Retrofitting or restoration may be a little more tricky since there may be size or style issues. But we know what makes fireplaces burn cleaner so maybe some improvements, short of an EPA approved fireplace but still effective in reducing emissions, such as a redesigned grate or adding doors, gas logs or a filter would be approved. Gas logs would appear to be a no-brainer in that installing gas logs in any fireplace would virtually eliminate particulate emissions. But some regulators won't approve gas logs in new fireplaces because they point out that it's possible to remove the gas logs and burn wood. Hey, it's possible to remove the catalytic converter on your car, drive faster than the speed limit and cheat on your taxes too but none of our customers would do any of those things. We should work hard to convince regulators to allow gas logs to be installed at least in existing fireplaces and, I would argue, also in new fireplaces so that there will be an industry to continue developing and improving clean-burning fireplaces. Some of the regulations, especially the ones that keep shifting and under which no fireplace has ever been approved, look more like bans than regulations. In San Francisco a few years ago the BAAQMD came out with a model ordinance that required fireplaces to meet an EPA emissions standard "if the EPA ever comes out with one". That looked like a ban to us at the time. Now we do have an EPA fireplace emissions standard. It may be too early to tell if the new BAAQMD Regulation 6 will be amended to allow fireplaces tested to ASTM E2558 and approved by the EPA but, if not, that may be an arguing point. If the current set of fireplace regulations are, in fact, intended to function as bans, perhaps it's because an outright ban would not be popular and not survive an up or down vote. We could ask some legislators. We could run a survey. We could ask for support from our dealers, masons, builders and architects. We could ally with realtors and home builder associations. Maybe we could even work toward a referendum. It couldn't be more expensive nor less effective than a law suit. We tried that. Have a comment? click here. 9/18/09 So far, three months after the EPA included masonry fireplaces in the renamed "Wood-burning Fireplace Program", only one fireplace (a metal one) has been tested for emissions to ASTM E2558 and approved by the EPA. Even that fireplace has not been accepted by any state or local air quality management district. A spokesman for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) in California told me that the BAAQMD was waiting until the EPA finished some modeling study which might change the Phase II passing grade of 5.1 g/kg. He had no answer to my question, "Why don't you approve them as a Phase I fireplace?" We wonder what the EPA is doing to work with these state and local air quality management districts to help them revise their "rules" to recognize the EPA Voluntary Wood-burning Fireplace Program. We wonder why the fireplace industry is not flocking to the test labs, getting their fireplaces approved by the EPA and applying to the BAAQMD and other air quality management districts. ... Jim Buckley Have a comment? click here.
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EPA Includes Masonry Fireplaces 7/2/09 EPA has agreed to revise the "low mass wood-burning fireplace" partnership agreement to include masonry fireplaces and call it simply the "wood-burning fireplace" partnership agreement". Click on Gil's draft Agreement which we do not expect will change much. We are very pleased with this decision which came as a result of the work of many in the industry as well as those of the HPBA, especially Tom Stroud and David Menotti. We are also fortunate to have a good working relationship with the EPA and especially with Gil Wood. Soon we expect the EPA to announce the final and official "Wood-burning Fireplace Partnership Agreement" but maybe not until a few models have been qualified, according to Gil. Again, thank you for all your work on behalf of masonry fireplaces. I join Gil in encouraging cleaner-burning fireplaces and looking forward to "lots of qualified models in the near future".
Best,
Subject: Greg Green has approved for us to proceed to revise the "low mass wood-burning fireplace" partnership agreement to "wood-burning fireplace" From: Gil Wood Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2009 As we recommended, Greg Green has approved for us to proceed to revise the "low mass wood-burning fireplace" partnership agreement to "wood-burning fireplace" and thus include masonry fireplaces, contingent upon the changes be only to expand the scope and to keep the qualifying emission levels and dates and test method the same. My understanding from earlier conversations and again on June 16, this should be acceptable to your members. Thus, we will proceed quickly to make the limited word changes, ask those that have already signed to sign the revised agreement, and open the agreement to other potential partners. Thank you for interest in encouraging cleaner-burning fireplaces. I look forward to lots of qualified models in the near future. Gil Wood, EPA
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EPA's Low Mass Wood-burning Fireplace Program 6/1/09 Currently the EPA's Low Mass Wood-burning Fireplace Program excludes masonry fireplaces even though the ASTM test standard does include masonry fireplaces. Read about the EPA's Low Mass Wood-burning Fireplace Program on the EPA website at http://www.epa.gov/air/fireplaces/program.html. The issue seems to be mostly the perceived difficulty in auditing - how to be sure a field constructed masonry fireplace is just like the one built and tested in a test lab. Stay tuned. Convincing the EPA to include masonry fireplaces in the Agreement is extremely important for those of us interested in masonry fireplaces.
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New Source Performance Standard for Wood Heaters (NSPS)
5/29/09 The Hearth Patio and Barbecue Association (HPBA) held a conference in Denver May 27-28, 2009 to prepare for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) review of the New Source Performance Standard for Wood Heaters (NSPS). The EPA is required by law to revise the NSPS every ten years and it has been twenty so they are under some threat of another suit by the Lung Association and various environmental groups. Fireplaces were not included in the conference because the EPA has just concluded a "Voluntary Agreement" (at least for "low mass" fireplaces) with the fireplace industry. This conference was about revision of the wood stove regulation. The EPA is ratcheting up the standards to maybe 4.5 g/hr for stoves, including efficiency requirements and broadening the net to include pellet stoves, outdoor hydronic heaters, furnaces, cook stoves, etc. The meeting included the owners or test lab directors of all the major stove, insert, outdoor hydronic heater, wood-burning furnace and pellet stove manufacturers in the US and Canada. Some are in a panic. The NSPS regulation by EPA carries the force of law including recall of all appliances sold if a surprise audit results in a test that shows that an appliance does not meet the standard - with a $32,000 per day fine until the recall is accomplished - to get their attention. This was all a blinding glimpse of the obvious for me. I never understood why the metal fireplace manufacturers decided to work so hard to develop a fireplace emissions testing protocol and standard. A few years ago I thought the fireplace industry was willing to write off fireplace (builder's box) sales in areas that regulated fireplace emissions rather than have a fireplace emissions standard that might lead to the regulation of fireplace emissions nationwide. Turns out the metal fireplace manufactures have negotiated a Faustian deal with EPA. Fireplaces, they argue, are "merely decorative appliances". They are not "heating appliances". As such, fireplaces are not used daily to heat but rather they are used rarely if at all - maybe only a couple of times a year or maybe in some cases on an evening or two per week and weekends. Having been convinced, the EPA developed the "Voluntary Program" we have been working on for five years. The fireplace manufacturers can use the "Voluntary Program" which includes testing to the new ASTM E2558 standard, to try to get approval in "non-attainment" areas - areas like the Bay Area and Denver where air quality does not meet federal standards. In the rest of the country they don't expect fireplaces to be regulated. That new insight for me makes some things clear and raises other questions: 1) I have objected to being just a "merely decorative appliance" but, if I win the argument that Rumfords are effective radiant heaters, I may have just signed up to be regulated nationally under the force of law as a "heating appliance", complete with all the audits, recalls and $32,000 a day fines. Maybe I could live with Rumfords being "merely decorative" in Denver and tout their heating qualities in Chicago. 2) Being a "merely decorative appliance", however, may still turn out to be a liability. With the rising consciousness about issues like global warming and being "green", will our neighbors and people in general come to feel that polluting, even just a little, just for fun, when there is little or no benefit, is immoral? Will using a fireplace come to seem like smoking cigarettes or driving a Hummer? 3) Are there any assurances that, even if we pass the emissions tests and get on the EPA approved list, that local air quality regulators will certify or approve us? It's a "voluntary" program after all. 4) Now that we have a fireplace emission standard, even if it is voluntary, how certain can we be that the rest of the country won't embrace and enforce it in future? The temporary conclusion I come to is that in the near future masonry fireplaces can survive nationally and the clean-burning ones will probably be approved in at least some of the non-attainment areas. In the long run we will have to accept the fact of fireplace emission regulation, which will probably spread, and we should promote the usefulness of fireplaces as supplemental and emergency heaters, short of getting them classified as "heating appliances". For those of us who are interested in developing a clean-burning masonry fireplace, the EPA still has not agreed to include masonry fireplaces in the "Voluntary Agreement" they have concluded with the "low mass" (metal) fireplace industry. The HPBA is working to persuade the EPA to include masonry fireplaces and have promised to press the issue at their meeting with the EPA about the NSPS on June 16, 2009. The Buckley Rumford Co.is and has been a member of HPBA. We recommend that other masonry industry companies also join the HPBA and support their efforts on our behalf. The HPBA has been in the business of dealing with EPA regulation for a long time and they are effective. ... Jim Buckley
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New ASTM Fireplace Emissions Standard 3/11/09 A new ASTM standard - E2558-08 - on fireplace emissions has been approved and published. Masonry fireplaces are included in an Annex to the standard which equates a 35% oxygen recovery to the fuel weights measured on a scale used to determine when to re-load and end the test. We are only waiting on the EPA to negotiate an Agreement with the fireplace industry, decide what the passing emissions "number" will be and announce E2558 as a "voluntary standard" that local and state regulators can use to regulate fireplace emissions if they so choose. We hope that the new standard and EPA's active involvement will result in better regulation with more science and less politics. We expect our clean-burning Rumford fireplaces will be able to meet the standard but we also expect that we will have to monitor and lobby for fair local rule-making for months if not years to come. ... Jim Buckley
ASTM E2558 - The EPA
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Useful Links EPA Certified Test Labs
Myren Consulting, Inc.
OMNI Test Labs Attorneys Skilled in Environmental Law
Arter & Hadden, LLP, Attorneys at Law
Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll
Gablehouse Calkins & Granberg, LLC
Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe Attorneys |
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