Millinocket council extends deadline for use of outdoor wood-fired boilers

MILLINOCKET – John McLaughlin’s house on Somerset Street has two sources of heat – an outdoor wood-fired boiler for primary heat and hot water and an oil burner so old he fears it will break down, or blow up, every time he turns it on.

That’s why the construction worker left a job in Portsmouth, N.H., and lost 1 1/2 days pay, to receive a waiver from the Town Council on Thursday night from a new town ordinance that requires his wood boiler to be turned off on April 15.

Citing the mid-30-degree weather and more snow expected, the council voted 5-0 to grant a temporary waiver to McLaughlin and all other residents who use outdoor wood-fired boilers, extending the shutdown date to May 1.

McLaughlin wanted more time.

“We can keep coming back every two weeks, but I am losing money if I have to come back to do this,” McLaughlin told the council Thursday night.

After the meeting, he expressed frustration at the council, or any local government, creating ordinances that tell him how to heat his home and expecting him to conform to them instantly.

“Just coming here to argue this tonight cost me about $300 in salary,” McLaughlin said.

Under the ordinance, which went into effect Nov. 26, all outdoor wood-fired boilers can operate from Oct. 15 to April 15, must be at least 50 feet from a neighboring home, be rated to burn no more than 27.4 grams of particulate matter per 100,000 Btu per hour, and be at least 24 inches above the roof line of the closest neighboring home.

Councilor Scott Gonya, the primary proponent of the ordinance, sympathized with McLaughlin’s problems, but said the ordinance was created to help safeguard residents’ health, not penalize the owners of outdoor boilers.

Gonya proposed the ban in August, saying several Penobscot Avenue residents live near a resident whose boiler emits so much smoke that a smoky odor has infiltrated their homes and caused health problems, exacerbating asthma, colds, coughs and other forms of respiratory distress.

It wasn’t until the American Lung Association came out against such boilers in June that he was inspired to seek a ban, he said.

Regionally, Brewer and Millinocket have established similar ordinances. Three communities in Massachusetts – Northampton, Chicopee and Hadley – as well as Nunica and Grand Haven Township, Mich., and Suffolk County, N.Y., are among out-of-state municipalities that have established ordinances recently.

Lincoln and East Millinocket are considering similar ordinances.