fire, fire everywhere
Today at 3 am I learned that people in the crummy part of town aren't burning wood because they're cold; they're burning it for entertainment value, just like their richer counterparts. I was prepared to be a little understanding when it was suggested to me that they were cold (even though we didn't turn on our heat until yesterday), but when I was awakened by residual laundry contaminant last night instead of smoke, I wasn't inclined to be forgiving. I haven't been sleeping well, and seriously, the PM2.5 peak last night was a third of Saturday's, and it's getting colder.
posted by missmolly at 8:48 PM
2 Comments:
1. How did you learn about the burners' motivations, particularly at 3 in the morning?
2. What crummy part of town is close to yours?
3. Is there some way to make these guys aware of the problem? Somebody to complain to if they don't quit it?
1. If they were cold, they would have burned as much wood on Sunday night as Saturday night. (The PM2.5 peaks would have been similar.) And during our first hard freeze (Monday night), the PM2.5 peak was only 2/3 of Saturday's peak, so Saturday night's entertainment was burning things. (Some people really are cold -- I'm generalizing and being kind of a jerk about it, but previous experience indicates that the air will clear nicely in January, the coldest month of the year.)
2. Along Pantano (near Sunflower, the organic grocery store, oddly enough) has its issues, but the PM2.5 data I'm looking at is near Grant & First, which was identified as a part of town that uses wood for heat by somebody at PDEQ. Wherever they're doing it, Tucson is a bowl, and by 3 am, the bowl fills, and with the strong inversions we've been having, it's been staying filled all day long.
3. It's just burning for entertainment, and there's nothing to be done unless we start exceeding federal standards, which we aren't. I'm just really sensitive to PM2.5, and it's been in the 'good' category this whole time. I'll quit whining so much when our better filters come in.
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