Reno Tahoe Real Estate News

One of the most significant sources of pollution in mountain towns is the smoke created by woodburning fireplaces.  Communities throughout Lake Tahoe and Truckee have been making an effort for years to reduce the amount of smoke that gets into our atmosphere.  These communities have been offering rebates to people who buy woodstoves which meet the strictest EPA requirements or who switch to gas appliances.  As well, some communities have required changeouts to reduced emission appliances whenever a home sells.  This has been very effective in eliminating the majority of the polluting beasts (I suspect less than 5% of homes still have them in Truckee), but now the town of Truckee’s “Woodstove Ordinance” faces it’s most difficult hurdle, eliminating the last remaining heavy polluting woodstoves.

As of May 31st, 2008, all homeowners are REQUIRED to comply with the ordinance.  As of that date, if a property owner is found to have a non-compliant woodstove on their property, the Town will give the owner a notice to comply and will require you to remove the old appliance and associated piping within a certain time period.  If you comply with the notice, there will be no fines.  If you don’t a fine will ensue.  If you ever take out a permit for a remodel, addition, etc. the Building Department inspector will check all the woodstoves in your home for compliance and will issue the notice to comply as a condition of finalizing the permit (as they have done on new construction since 1994).  Also, if you sell your home, you are responsible for disclosing to the buyer that the home contains a non-conforming appliance.

As an incentive, if you get a permit to  change out a non-compliant woodstove prior to May 31, the town will offer you a rebate of $300 for changing to a compliant woodstove, or $500 if you change to a gas or pellet stove.

 If you have questions about your woodstove, I encourage you to contact me or any other “certified” woodstove inspector.

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