It was a heated discussion with tempers flaring.
"If my wife gets cold and I don't have the money
to pay the gas bill I'm going to burn my unlicensed unregistered wood stove,"
said one opponent.
It's no secret, air quality in the Central Valley is less than
perfect.
As a result, wood burning fire places could soon
be outlawed.
The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District plans to
increase the number of no burn days for all wood burning devices.
"I think your staff needs to go back to the drawing board," said
another opponent.
Opponent are worried they are losing their freedoms.
"Next year how many burn days are we going to
have?"
According to the district, residential wood burning adds more
fine particulate emissions to the atmosphere than any other
source.
It's something teachers like Megan Bohigian says doesn't help her asthma
battling students.
"We can't fix everything but if not burning my fire place is
going to help children breath better, I'm all for it," said Bohigian.
Others consider it big brother breather down their
neck.
"It seems like every year of few years, it gets more
restrictive, said another opponent.
SJVAPCD argues they are cracking down on all forms of pollution,
to protect the air each of us breathes.