Darrington
New wood stove change-out program launched in Darrington
If you have an old uncertified wood stove or insert, a certified stove or insert manufactured before 1995, a wood furnace, or a coal-burning stove or insert, you could be eligible for a significant financial incentive to replace it.
A new wood stove change-out program is being offered to Darrington area residents. This new program is open to people living beyond the Darrington town limits, which was the program boundary for previous change-out incentive programs. If you live within the Darrington Smoke Reduction Zone, you may be eligible for up to $4,500 toward the cost of replacing an older, polluting device.
Check out program details and apply today if you do. Also, you'd need to work with one of our contracted retailers: Darrington Do-It-Best Hardware, Craft Stove in Mount Vernon; Air Care Systems in Arlington; or Anderson Fireplace & Spas in Everett. Don’t delay. When funds run out, the program ends!
Additional Offers
Old Stove Buy-Back Incentives
If residents in the program area have an old stove they want to get rid of but don’t need a replacement heating system, the following incentives are offered:
- $350 for surrendering any installed and eligible wood-burning or coal-burning device at Darrington Do-It Best Hardware.
- $100 for a trash burner or barrel stove surrendered at Darrington Do-It Best Hardware.
Click here (pdf) for more information.
Wood Storage Shed Incentive
If residents heat with wood, the program can help them keep their wood dry, which helps it burn more efficiently and cleanly. Residents in the program area can receive up to $250 for the cost of constructing an approved shed for covered firewood storage. Ecology has free plans for one-cord wood sheds; other plans for larger sheds would need to be approved by the Town. Participants will need to submit receipts and agree to an on-site visit to ensure proper completion of the project.
Click here (pdf) for more information.
Weatherization Assistance
The program also offers weatherization assistance up to $1,000 for those who participated in prior agency change-out programs and don’t qualify for county weatherization assistance. To be eligible, residents of wood-heated homes will be required to provide documentation of ineligibility for county programs; build a wood shed (cost reimbursable up to $250, see above), if they don’t already have one; and agree to attend a clean-burning class.
Click here (pdf) for more information.
Compressed Energy Logs
Incentives are offered for program-area residents who heat with wood to try clean-burning compressed energy logs. The program will provide one $20 incentive per household that can be applied toward the cost of these very efficient logs. Residents can apply at Town Hall for a gift card to be used at Darrington Do-It-Best Hardware.
New Darrington-only burn-ban program
In addition, the Clean Air Agency is implementing a new burn-ban program for the Darrington Smoke Reduction Zone. Under this program, the Agency will be calling localized, instead of county-wide, burn bans when pollution levels and forecasts for the Darrington Smoke Reduction Zone indicate such bans are necessary to protect public health and prevent violations of federal air quality standards. It is important that you sign up to receive notices about burn bans if you live within these program boundaries.
Sign up today to make sure you are notified if a burn ban is called for this area. You need to do this even if you already are signed up to receive notices of Snohomish County burn bans, because there may be occasions when burn bans are called in Darrington but not for the rest of the county.
Why are we doing this?
Air quality in the town of Darrington has improved substantially since early 2005, when the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency began the first of two rounds of wood stove change-out programs. The second occurred in 2008.
To date, more than 70 old polluting wood stoves have been replaced with cleaner heating devices, dramatically reducing the number of days Darrington’s air quality reaches unhealthy levels.
Today, Darrington’s air quality is usually in the good category on the federal Air Quality Index. However, if federal air quality standards are tightened, there is a real risk that the town could exceed unhealthy air levels often enough to trigger what is known as nonattainment status. This could lead to stringent restrictions on wood burning and on the growth of business and industry in the area, which in turn would affect employment and the local economy.
Let’s not let that happen. We have a chance to get out in front of this potential issue with even more incentives to get rid of old polluting wood-burning or coal-burning devices and replace them with cleaner heat sources.
Background
Because Darrington sits in a deep valley surrounded by mountain peaks, occasional and persistent wintertime inversions trap smoke from residential wood burning, which causes pollution levels to rise.
In early 2005, Darrington’s town leaders asked the Clean Air Agency to help them reduce this wintertime wood smoke pollution. They requested that an air quality monitoring site be established in the town, and that monitor continues in operation today.
With the agency’s help, the town launched a subsidized wood stove trade-out program in late 2005. Since then, more than 70 old, uncertified wood stoves were replaced with electric heat pumps, propane stoves, pellet stoves and certified wood stoves. As a result, ambient air quality monitoring has also shown that seasonal fine particulate concentrations are on a pronounced downward trend since the wood stove trade-out program was started.
