City seeks to regulate use of Wood Boilers

At a recent January 18 2010 Committee of the Whole meeting, Brantford resident Susan Cornell brought her concerns about a wood boiler on a neighbouring property in Ward 1 to Council.

Cornell, who lives at 245 Grand River Avenue, told Council of the many health issues she suffers each year as a result of an outside wood boiler used by her neighbours. She said that out of 144 days the wood boiler was burning last season, she suffered severe symptoms on 66 of these days. Her symptoms include sore throats, headaches, tiredness and difficulty breathing.
“On good days, I do not have these symptoms,” she said.

Although Cornell said she understood the economic savings a wood boiler offers, she said the fine particulates and other by-products created as a result of wood burning can cause bronchitis, cancer, and eye, nose and throat conditions.

Ward 1 councillor Jennifer Kinneman brought forth a resolution to have members of the Building Department, the Environmental Services Department, the Fire Department, the Legal Department and the Brant County Health Unit meet and review a report presented by Environment Canada on the health risks of wood smoke and options available to municipalities wishing to introduce bylaws to minimize the associated risk. The resolution would see the aforementioned departments provide Council with conclusions and recommendations as how best to regulate the use of outside wood boilers in the City of Brantford.

At a subsequent City Council meeting held one week later on January 25, Councillor Greg Martin spoke against the resolution.

He stated that the City has been trying to encourage green energy use, but that this resolution goes against that sentiment.

“Here we have some people who are using biomass, which is a green generation, or a green method of heating and we’re going to make that difficult for people to emulate that within the city,” he said. “They’re using dead trees from (a family) woodlot, so they’re not even killing trees to fire this boiler.”

He noted the need to look for other solutions, including the possibility of asking the owners to put a taller stack on the boiler to eliminate some of the smoke issues.

“There are problems with what’s being proposed here,” he concluded. “I’m not sure that I can continue to support this.”

Councillor Marguerite Ceschi-Smith, on the other hand, cited her support for the resolution.

“I know (wood boilers) are supposedly environmental but they’re not in that… the particulates go up in the air, and people breathe those in, just as they would particulates from coal or from other things,” she said.

Ceschi-Smith provided examples of municipalities in British Columbia and Quebec that have banned these types of burning devices, or regulated their use through by-laws and noted that Brantford as a community could do the same.

“I actually think this is just a beginning,” she said. “Maybe we should be looking at this a little bit more closely, and looking to maybe doing something in our community that looks at not just these outdoor pieces, but other items as well that burn particulates because over the years I’ve had numerous complaints. I’ve brought them to Fire and I’ve brought them to the City and various other places and there’s never been anything we can do.”

“But we do know that the air quality here in Brantford is not very good, that there are a lot of particulates, that people have issues with their lungs. So if we could do something to avoid that.”

At the conclusion of speakers, council voted 10-1 in favour of passing the resolution.