Wood-burning stove discounts scooped up

Sizable discounts on wood-burning stoves were exhausted within 15 minutes of being offered earlier this month, according to an official from the Monterey Bay Unified Air Pollution Control District.
The air district gave discounts of $250 to $1,000 to property owners in Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito counties who replaced their wood-burning stoves with more efficient, less polluting stoves and fireplace inserts certified by the Environmental Protection Agency.
“This was the first year of the program,” said Mike Gilroy, deputy air pollution control officer. “We’re hoping to grow the program next year.”
Gilroy noted that $50,000 of the $75,000 program was targeted for homeowners in the San Lorenzo Valley, where the air district identified a need for cleaner-burning wood stoves and fireplaces.
The district also worked with Central Coast Energy Services to help low-income households buy replacement stoves.
The program sold out 15 minutes after it opened Oct. 13, Gilroy said. Santa Cruz retailers Woodstove & Sun and Santa Cruz Stove & Fireplaces and Watsonville’s The Hearth Shop all participated.
The air district has applied for extra federal funding for this year through the EPA, but Gilroy noted that nothing had turned up as of this week. He hopes the program will expand in 2012 and noted that the demand is still there.
The air district will begin an air-monitoring study in the San Lorenzo Valley this winter, Gilroy added.
For information: www.mbuapcd.org