The electronic sign outside of Seeley Lake Elementary is color coded to provide air quality information. When the sign is green, air quality is good. When the sign is yellow, the three-hour average is approaching 35 µg/m3. And when the sign is red, the three-hour average is over 35 µg/m3 and people need to reduce wood stove smoke emissions.
SEELEY LAKE - With the abundance of wood and no natural gas pipeline in the area, many businesses and residents of Seeley Lake use wood stoves as an affordable heating option. Unfortunately, winter wood stove smoke emissions are the main reason Seeley Lake exceeds a national air pollution standard for particulate matter (specifically, PM2.5).
PM2.5 is particulate matter in the air with a diameter of 2.5 microns and smaller. The National Ambient Air Quality Standard for PM2.5 is 35 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3) averaged from midnight to midnight. This is frequently called the 24-hour, or daily, standard.
While the Seeley Lake Wood Stove Change Out program greatly reduced the wood stove smoke levels throughout Seeley Lake since its inception in 2012, the neighborhood near the elementary school still exceeds the daily standard more than 10 times per year. In fact, in the 2015/2016 winter months, woodstove smoke caused 18 exceedances of the daily standard.
To inform Seeley Lake residents about air quality topics and near real-time air quality impacts from wood stoves, the Missoula City-County Health Department worked with the Seeley Lake community to install an electronic sign by the elementary school entrance. The sign displays both wood stove education and community messages.
Generally, the sign will display the most recent 1-hour average particulate concentration. While one hour over 35 µg/m3 is not an exceedance of the standard, it is a near real-time air quality indicator.
Past winters show that exceedances of the daily PM2.5 standard can occur any day November through February. The smoke tends to be worse in the evenings, at night and the early morning hours when people reload their stoves. On most days, the smoke will clear out of the valley by midmorning and air quality will stay good through the afternoon. But sometimes in the winter, a high-pressure ridge will set up and trap pollution in the valley for several days with no mid-day breaks from the smoke.
Under high-pressure ridges, violations of the daily PM2.5 standard are frequent. When these high-pressure ridges are predicted, the Missoula City-County Health Department will post that information on the electronic sign and request that people make extra efforts to burn clean.
The "Wood Stove Use Status" message is based on a three-hour average and color coded to indicate when smoke levels are high. Since smoke conditions can change rapidly in Seeley Lake, this message is based on the shorter three-hour average instead of the daily average.
When the sign is green, air quality is good and well below 35 µg/m3. When the sign is yellow, the three-hour average is approaching 35 µg/m3. And when the sign is red, the three-hour average is over 35 µg/m3 and people need to reduce wood stove smoke emissions. Good burning practices with dry wood could reduce smoke levels.
To prevent Seeley Lake from being declared a non-attainment area for PM2.5, and avoid wood stove regulations and impacts to local industry, the community needs to show continued improvement in air quality. The goal is to have six days or fewer over the daily standard of 35 µg/m3 each year. If Seeley Lake is designated a non-attainment area for PM2.5, the National Clean Air Act requires Missoula County to adopt enforceable rules that can get the area into attainment.
While the community has shown progress with the wood stove change out program, additional steps will be necessary to continue to show improvements in air quality. The Health Department has observed several new stoves in the woodstove change out area that continue to emit thick smoke. This highlights a fundamental truth about woodstoves: no matter how well a traditional woodstove stove is made, the stove must be operated correctly with dry wood to burn cleanly and efficiently.
For information on how to operate your stove most efficiently and cleanly, contact your wood stove dealer. Stoves operated properly with dry wood need less fuel to heat your home. This can save you money, wood and time.
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