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DEQ accepting applications for 2021 West Silver Valley Woodstove Changeout Program

Wednesday, November 25, 2020

KELLOGG — The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is accepting applications for the 2021 West Silver Valley Woodstove Changeout Program.

The changeout program is open to homeowners living in the West Silver Valley Nonattainment Area, which runs from Cataldo to Big Creek, and aims to replace older, inefficient stoves with new, EPA-certified units. Homeowners will work with DEQ and a local vendor to replace their old woodstove beginning in February 2021.

This is the final year of the program, which has contributed to a successful reduction of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution in the West Silver Valley airshed.

In 2015, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) designated the West Silver Valley as a nonattainment area for PM2.5, meaning it had violated the federal health-based annual standard for this pollutant. Since then, efforts to reduce local particulate matter have been successful and DEQ submitted a request to EPA to redesignate the area as attainment.

In the last three years, DEQ replaced almost 188 older wood-burning devices with more efficient units and plans to replace additional stoves in the coming year.

Applications are available online at DEQ’s West Silver Valley Air Quality Improvement Projects page and can be mailed upon request. Contact Dan Smith (dan.smith@deq.idaho.gov) for more information.

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