PORTLAND (AP) – State EPA officials say that hundreds more wood boilers will by purchased in Maine this year, adding to the 2,000 or so already in use. But not everybody is happy.

Home and business owners hoping to achieve energy independence are installing wood-fired boilers. But some neighbors say smoke that occasionally wafts onto their homes.

Beth Thomas of Bowdoinham said smoke and particulates from her neighbor’s boiler give her headaches.

It also makes her two children wheeze and feel dizzy.

“We just want to go outside and not feel like we’re getting sick,” Thomas said.

Boilers require large quantities of wood. Fire heats water in a reservoir, which is pumped through underground pipes to the home or business and circulated through its heating system. Oxygen to the fire is cut off when the desired temperature is reached, but the wood continues to smolder, releasing soot and smoke.

The state Department of Environmental Protection says it’s already receiving two or three complaints a month about the boilers. The DEP says about 2,000 of them are in use in the state and 400 more will be bought this year.

With no federal regulations over emissions from the boilers, the DEP is working with a regional group called the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management on developing emissions standards for the boilers.

The average wood boiler emits more than 70 grams of particle pollution per hour, which is 15 times the federal standard for other wood stoves, according to the American Lung Association of Maine.

“These things are really creating some serious localized air issues,” said DEP Commissioner David Littell, who hopes to introduce a state regulation by early next year. Meanwhile, towns such as Millinocket are considering ordinances that would regulate boilers.

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Information from: Portland Press Herald, https://www.pressherald.com

AP-ES-09-18-06 1430EDT