• Burn bans apply only to the Mendenhall Valley. They are most likely on cold, clear days with little wind.
• Open burning is prohibited in the Mendenhall Valley and Lemon Creek from Nov. 1 to March 31.
• Pellet stoves are exempt from bans.
• Burn bans are advertised in the Empire, on the hotline, with 12 signs around the valley, on the radio, and the city Web site.
• City air pollution hotline: 586-5333.
• Enforcement: Juneau Police Department, 586-0600.
• City woodsmoke Web site: juneau.org/lands/woodsmoke.php.

Juneau enforces first Valley burn bans in years

Mendenhall area on EPA's list of cities with poor air quality

With Tuesday morning's snow, the Mendenhall Valley was released from the curse of clear weather: potentially unhealthy air. By that time, about 100 Mendenhall Valley residents had gotten warnings for illegally using their wood stoves.

The two burn bans this month were the first in many years, as tighter federal air pollution laws forced the city to act.

Bob Dilley, lead community police officer for the Juneau Police Department, had several officers out looking for violators during the burn bans. After getting a warning, repeat offenders could be fined $100.

"It's not much of a fun ordinance to enforce when you're telling people to turn off their heat," Dilley said.

The Mendenhall Valley's soot and dust has improved since the 1980s, particularly with more paving.

"Juneau has done an awesome job of improving air quality in the Mendenhall Valley," said Alice Edwards, acting air quality director for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

But the federal government tightened air pollution standards for fine particulate recently, based on growing evidence that it's dangerous to breathe. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency listed Juneau's Mendenhall Valley on Monday as officially having bad air.

It's not every day. The valley gets the designation because of those few winter days when the weather inverts. When it's cold and clear, warm air fails to rise, and people end up breathing smoke from their neighbors' wood stoves. It's a problem all over the Pacific Northwest, according to EPA's Krishna Viswanathan.

EPA considered listing the whole borough of Juneau because fine particulate can travel far. But state air quality regulators at the Department of Environmental Conservation proved to the feds that the problem was just in the valley.

"Nonattainment" of EPA air quality standards is a warning to local lungs. It means more work for city and state regulators, who are obliged to write and implement a plan for improving the air. And it means that any projects that use federal funding have to go through extra environmental review before getting the money to make sure they're not adding to the problem.

The city will have a chance to submit new data to the EPA in February to get the valley delisted.

Meanwhile, residents' interest in wood stoves has spiked along with the price of heating fuel.

"We're probably the only ones who have had some benefit from the price of oil," said Larry Traeger of Alaska Hearth Products in Juneau, who sells stoves between $750 and $3,000.

A state survey of 400 valley residents last winter showed 44 percent of them had a wood-burning device, such as a wood or pellet stove or a fireplace. That was a third more than in the 2004 survey.

Wood stoves have become much more efficient. Pellet stoves have such low emissions that they're not subject to the burn bans. They're about twice as popular as they were five years ago, said Traeger, and now account for 40 percent of his store's sales.

In the DEC survey, about 12 percent of residents had pellet stoves.

Traeger markets the efficiency of his stoves because that's what people ask for. One in his showroom, a Quadra-Fuel, is labeled as 75 percent efficient. People who buy it qualify for a $300 federal tax credit. Another stove comes with a remote control. It can be programmed to turn on when needed and therefore save money and fuel.

The downside is that the more efficient the stove, the less wood smell it emits. The pellet stoves don't smell at all, Traeger said.

Dilley suspected people were just getting used to the new ordinance. Many who were caught said they didn't know the ban had been called. Some said they didn't have another heating source, though it's required by code, or that it was broken.

"They all may be true," Dilley said. "But unfortunately, the code doesn't allow for exceptions like that. It's pretty black and white."

Twin Lakes resident Sandy Warner said she'd chosen to live outside the valley 24 years ago specifically to avoid the burn bans. She loves her wood stove.

"I wouldn't live in Alaska and not be able to have a fire when it was cold," Warner said.