Stove here! Get your new stove here!

KELLOGG — For the fourth year in a row, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality is offering to replace qualifying old wood stoves in the West Silver Valley.

IDEQ announced recently that the application period for the 2020 woodstove changeout program will be open from Oct. 1 through Dec. 30.

Thanks to an Environmental Protection Agency airshed grant awarded to IDEQ in 2016, West Silver Valley Airshed Project Coordinator Dan Smith has overseen the replacement of roughly 130 out-of-date wood stoves in the attainment area.

For the past three years, the qualifications for the change-out have remained mostly the same. Candidates must reside in the West Silver Valley Non-Attainment Area (which runs from Cataldo to Big Creek. Pine Creek and portions of the North Fork also apply) and must be currently burning a non-EPA-certified wood stove in their residence.

For this final year of the program though, Smith and IDEQ have expanded these qualifications to include businesses and homeowners with backyard workshops. It is their hope that with the looser application requirements, the program will be able to replace 60 stoves in 2020.

This inclusion of businesses and shops was also spurred by observations Smith has made in the area. In many cases, he noticed businesses and residents burning items with either burn barrels or shop stoves — both of which contribute to the air pollution levels.

While he believes there is still much to do, Smith has seen some early data that shows the program has made an impact since it kicked up in 2016.

“We’re starting to see some real results,” he said of the program. “The results from our Pinehurst monitoring station have been consistently going down since the beginning of the change-out program. Right now we are just below the annual standards for the national air quality standard.”

While he is pleased with the improved quality, Smith also stresses that this final year of the program is not the time to slow down.

“Just because you’re ahead in a football game, doesn’t mean you quit.”

If accepted, the program can provide a new stove/funds for a new stove to replace old, uncertified wood stoves with a new, EPA-certified woodstove, gas stove or pellet stove. Stoves manufactured after 1998 may be replaced with a gas stove or insert.

On top of the new stoves, the airshed grant also has funding available — to those who qualify — to address chimney issues.

Smith noticed the chimneys attached to the non-compliant stoves were a mess during most of his inspections in the past.

“The biggest issue we are seeing is that of all the stoves we have installed — not one chimney has been worth a damn,” he said in a previous interview.

“If the stove is the heart of the system, the chimney is the lungs — they don’t work without each other.”

Installing a brand new — more efficient — stove that pumps out more heat than its predecessor presents a fire hazard when combined with an obsolete/damaged chimney.

The vast majority of qualified applicants who have received a new stove also had some sort of work done to their chimney.

The purpose of this change out is to cut down on the No. 1 air pollutant in the Silver Valley — wood stove smoke.

Smith explained that “because of the high levels of particulate matter in the air, the WSV has been on the borderline of Non-Attainment of the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for PM2.5 for many years.”

It was because of the non-attainment rating that IDEQ was able to get the grant to fund the project.

These elevated levels of particulate matter can affect the overall health of area residents — particularly children with chronic health conditions and the elderly.

During the colder winter months when the area is susceptible to frequent inversions, fine particulate matter from woodstoves and other sources can be trapped in the area.

The new, cleaner burning, wood stoves only release 3.5 grams per hour (gph) of particulate, compared to the older/outdated ones that release around 35 gph.

Applications are also available online at https://bit.ly/2zmPwCc. Paper copies are available at the DEQ Kellogg office (1005 McKinley Ave.) or Pinehurst City Hall.

Home visits to inspect old stoves will start in January 2020, with installations beginning in February.

For more information or questions about the application, contact Dan Smith at 208-783-5781 or dan.smith@deq.idaho.gov.