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DISTRICT OF CHETWYND
BYLAW NO. 963, 2012
A bylaw to provide for the regulation of wood burning appliances, open air burning and fugitive
dust control
WHEREAS, the Local Government Act authorizes Council, by bylaw, to make regulations with
respect to fire suppression and prevention and other classes of circumstances that may cause harm to
persons or property;
AND WHEREAS the Community Charter authorizes Council to regulate, prohibit and impose
requirements in relation to the protection and enhancement of the well-being of its community as
related to the emission of smoke, sparks, dust, ash, soot, cinders fumes or other effluvia that is liable to
foul or contaminate the atmosphere;
AND WHEREAS the Community Charter authorizes Council to regulate, prohibit and impose
requirements in relation to the protection of the natural environment;
NOW THEREFORE, the Council of the District of Chetwynd, in open meeting lawfully assembled,
hereby enacts as follows:
1.
CITATION
1.1. This bylaw may be cited for all purposes as the "District of Chetwynd Wood Burning
Appliance/Clean Air Bylaw No. 963, 2012".
2.
DEFINITIONS
2.1. In this Bylaw:
"Air Quality Advisory" means a public health warning issued by the Province of British
Columbia in collaboration with the regional health board responsible for public health
matters within the District of Chetwynd, on the basis of the monitoring of air quality
parameters in the District of Chetwynd;
"Authorized Person" means the Director of Engineering & Public Works or his/her
designate;
"Building" means a temporary or permanent structure designed, erected, or intended for
the shelter, enclosure or occupancy of persons or property including animals, materials,
chattels, and/or equipment. This includes any shed, garage, shop, tent, trailer, or container
used for the above purposes as well as any business;
"Bylaw Enforcement Officer" means a person appointed by Council as Bylaw
Enforcement Officer for the enforcement of Bylaws, and may include the Chief
Administrative Officer, Building Inspector, Animal Control Officer, Director of
Engineering & Public Works, or their designates, and other persons acting in another
capacity on behalf of the municipality for the purpose of enforcing one or more of the
municipal Bylaws;
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"Canadian Standard" means the Performance Testing of Solid-Fuel-Burning Stoves,
Inserts, and Low-Burn-Rate Factory-Built Fireplaces CAN/CSA-B415.1 standard published
by the Canadian Standards Association as amended from time to time;
"Demolition, Renovation and Construction Wastes" includes but is not limited to waste
materials resulting from the demolition, renovation or construction of buildings such as
pipe, concrete, asphalt, lumber, stumps, roofing material, masonry, wire, treated wood,
particle board, paint, drywall, tar and asphalt products;
"Dust Suppressing Liquids" means water or a water-based solution used to control the
generation of fugitive dust.
"Fire Chief" means the person appointed as such by the Council of the District of
Chetwynd and any person delegated to assist him/her in carrying out his/her duties under
this Bylaw;
"Fugitive Dust" means dust generated by sweeping and maintenance operations on
highways, parking areas and other paved surfaces or dust generated from vehicle traffic or
wind on gravel lots, paved and gravel roads, construction sites and soil and gravel pits;
"Garbage" means any household or commercial waste or refuse;
"Hydronic Heaters" also known as outdoor wood heaters or outdoor wood boilers, are
appliances that may be located inside or outside a building, that burns fuel such as wood,
pellets, corn, hay or other biofuels to heat and circulate a fluid through piping to provide
heat and/or hot water to a building;
"Land Clearing Debris" means any organic material cleared from land in the process of
preparing the land for development, agriculture, silviculture, highway construction or utility
installation or any other use;
"Masonry Heater" means a pre-manufactured, site-built or site-assembled, solid-fueled
heating device constructed mainly of masonry materials or soapstone having a mass of at
least 800 kg in which heat from intermittent fires burned rapidly in its firebox is stored in
its massive structure for slow release to the building. It has an interior construction
consisting of a firebox and heat exchange channels built from refractory components. It
must be site-built or site-assembled to the specifications of the manufacturer;
"Noxious Material" includes but is not limited to tires, plastics, rubber products,
Demolition and Construction Wastes, hazardous waste as defined in the Environmental
Management Act, animal organic waste, vegetable waste, food waste, biomedical waste,
automotive battery shipping boxes, plastic materials, waste petroleum products, treated or
painted wood, chemically-treated paper, cardboard, and those materials listed in Schedule
"A" to the Environmental Management Act's Open Burning Smoke Control Regulation as
amended from time to time;
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"Open Burning" means the combustion in the open air of yard and garden waste, land
clearing debris, or any other material, including burning of any of these materials in a
container, but does not include a recreational fire or the combustion of gas, propane, or
charcoal in a barbecue or hibachi for the purpose of cooking food;
"Pellet Stove" means a stove designed and used exclusively for the combustion of wood
pellets having a maximum length of 2.5 cm in any dimension, and meeting the particulate
emission requirements of the Canadian Standard or the US Standard, but does not include a
hydronic heater that is fuelled by pellets;
"Recreational Fire" means the burning of seasoned firewood for recreational purposes in a
permanent outdoor fireplace, barbecue or fire pit not larger than 60 centimeters in diameter
that is designed and constructed to confine the fire and is suitable for such a purpose, or
within a fully enclosed burner or similar device;
"Seasoned Firewood" means untreated wood that has been air dried for a minimum of six
months including summer months and has a moisture content of 25% or less and includes
wood pellets;
"US Standard" means the New Source Performance Standards, Title 40, Part 60, Sub-part
AAA of the Code of Federal Regulations (USA) (7-1-92 Edition), published by the United
States Environmental Protection Agency as amended from time to time;
"Wood Burning Appliance" means a fireplace, fireplace insert, wood stove, heater,
burner, boiler, furnace, pellet stove or similar device, other than a masonry heater, installed
in or about any building, in which wood is burned and discharges combustion products to
the air;
"Yard and Garden Waste" means grass, foliage, tree debris, prunings, weeds, crops,
stumps, stubble, compost and similar waste items.
3.
WOOD BURNING APPLIANCES
3.1. Wood Burning Restrictions
3.1.1. No person shall use a wood burning appliance, hydronic heater, or masonry heater
at any time when an air quality advisory is in effect, except to heat a building that is
equipped with no heating appliance, floor board heaters or facilities other than the
wood burning appliance, hydronic heater, or masonry heater.
3.1.2. All persons shall maintain, according to manufacturers' specifications, a wood
burning appliance, hydronic heater, or masonry heater, and associated chimney and
vent that is used to heat a building including the replacement of catalytic
combustors or catalysts in catalytic wood burning appliances.
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3.1.3. Except as expressly provided in section 3.1.4, no person shall operate a wood
burning appliance, hydronic heater, or masonry heater in such a manner as to
discharge air contaminants that are likely to cause or significantly contribute to the
injury of or damage to human health, plant or animal life or property, or so as to
unreasonably interfere with the enjoyment of life or property.
3.1.4. Incidents of air contaminant discharge or odour shall not constitute a nuisance for
the purposes of section 3.1.3 if:
(a)
the incident occurs for less than two (2) continuous minutes, or;
(b)
the incident occurs within thirty (30) minutes of, and is a direct result of, the
ignition of a wood burning appliance, hydronic heater, or masonry heater, or;
(c)
the incident occurs within thirty (30) minutes of, and is a direct result of, the
refueling of a wood burning appliance or an hydronic heater, provided that
such refueling occurs not more than once every four hours.
3.2. Requirements for Installation of Wood Burning Appliances
3.2.1. No person shall install a wood burning appliance in or about any building unless the
appliance meets the particulate emission requirements of the Canadian standard or
the US standard.
3.2.2. No person shall install a hydronic heater on any property within the District of
Chetwynd.
3.3. Requirements for New Buildings or Alterations to Buildings
3.3.1. Any person:
(a)
constructing a new building, or
(b)
otherwise obtaining a building permit for alterations or renovations to an
existing building that result in an increase of 7.0 square meters or more to
the area of that building for which space heating is required in respect of a
building that uses a wood burning appliance or masonry heater as its
primary source of heat;
shall install and maintain an additional form of space heating, such as natural gas,
propane, electricity or oil, or other alternative means of heating the space in the
event of an air quality advisory.
3.4. Prohibited Fuel Type
3.4.1. No person shall cause or allow any substance; in particular any garbage or noxious
material, to be burned in any wood burning appliance, hydronic heater or masonry
heater other than seasoned firewood for the combustion of which the appliance was
designed.
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4.
OPEN BURNING AND RECREATIONAL FIRES
4.1. Any open burning conducted at any time within the District of Chetwynd must meet the
current Environmental Management Act Open Burning Smoke Control Regulations of the
Province of British Columbia. In extraordinary circumstances and for purposes of public
safety, the Fire Chief may grant a temporary burning permit.
4.2. No person shall ignite or maintain any recreational fire if an air quality advisory has been
issued.
4.3. If an air quality advisory is issued while a person is maintaining a recreational fire, that
person shall take all reasonable steps to extinguish the recreational fire within an hour of
the advisory being issued.
4.4. No person shall maintain any recreational fire in such a manner as to discharge air
contaminants that are likely to cause or significantly contribute to the cause or injury or
damage to human health, plant or animal life, or so as to unreasonably interfere with the
enjoyment of life or property.
4.5. No person shall cause or allow any garbage, yard and garden waste or noxious material to
be burned in a recreational fire.
4.6. All persons maintaining a recreational fire shall:
(a)
be competent to control the recreational fire;
(b)
continuously control and supervise the recreational fire;
(c)
possess at the site of the recreational fire extinguishing equipment appropriate to the
size and type of recreational fire;.
(d)
use only seasoned firewood, and;
(e)
not cause, permit or allow the recreational fire to come within five (5) meters of any
property line, fence, standing timber, brush or building.
4.7. This bylaw also applies to a recreation fire in a designated campground within the District
of Chetwynd, but these campfires are subject to restrictions and/or prohibition at the
discretion of the Fire Chief due to hazardous fire conditions or poor smoke dispersion.
5.
MEANS TO CONTROL
5.1. Every person to whom permission has been granted to burn any material must:
(a)
place and keep a competent person, at all times, in charge and be present while open
burning and until the open air burning is completely extinguished and will provide
such person with sufficient and adequate fire fighting appliances and equipment as is
required in order to prevent open air burning from getting beyond controls or causing
damage or becoming a danger to life and property; and
(b)
ensure the competent person attending the open air burning is over the age of 18
years.
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6.
PUBLIC SAFETY
6.1. No person shall burn material in any manner which:
(a)
produces heavy or toxic smoke and/or fly ash which endangers the health, safety or
welfare of persons or animals; or
(b)
causes smoke to obscure visibility and thereby creates a hazard to traffic on a public
roadway.
7.
RESTRICTIONS OR CANCELLATION OF PERMIT
7.1. The Fire Chief may require any person to extinguish open air burning which has been set
out, started or kindled in breach of any provisions, condition or restriction of this Bylaw or
any burning permit issued pursuant to this bylaw.
7.2. Where, in the opinion of the Fire Chief, hazardous open air burning conditions develop or
exist, the Fire Chief may, at any time, make an Order cancelling or suspending all or any
permits issued pursuant to this Bylaw, or attaching to all or any such permits any conditions
or restrictions as the Fire Chief may deem necessary.
8.
FUGITIVE DUST CONTROL
8.1. No person shall sweep or maintain any highway or off street parking, loading and storage
areas except with the use of equipment using fugitive dust control procedures, or dust
suppressing liquids.
8.2. All persons using dust suppressing liquids shall apply those liquids to the swept or
maintained areas prior to and during sweeping or maintenance operations in amounts
sufficient to minimize the generation of fugitive dust.
8.3. No person shall conduct sweeping or maintenance operations in such a manner as to cause
or significantly contribute to the cause of injury or damage to human health, plant or animal
life or property, or so as to unreasonably interfere with the enjoyment of life or property.
8.4. No person shall undertake any sweeping or maintenance of highways or off street parking,
loading, or storage areas at any time when an air quality advisory is in effect, unless
approved by an Authorized Person on the basis that dust suppression measures satisfactory
to the Authorized Person will be taken to control fugitive dust.
8.5. All owners and operators of off street parking, loading and storage areas, sand and gravel
pits, demolition sites, construction sites and highways shall maintain those areas so that
fugitive dust does not escape in such a manner as to cause or significantly contribute to the
cause of injury or damage to human health, plant or animal life or property, or so as to
unreasonably interfere with the enjoyment of life or property.
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9.
EXEMPTIONS
9.1. This bylaw does not apply to the normal use of recreational fires, charcoal, gas fired or
electric grills and barbeques for the purpose of cooking food or approved gas fuelled
outdoor fireplaces or heaters.
9.2. This Bylaw does not apply to open air burning set for the purpose of Fire Department "Live
Fire" training exercises.
10. LIABILITIES
10.1. This bylaw shall not be construed to hold the District or its authorized agents responsible
for any damage to persons or property by reason of a burning permit issued as herein
provided or an inspection authorized by this Bylaw.
11. OFFENCES AND PENALTIES
11.1. Any person who violates any provision of this Bylaw, or who permits, suffers, or allows
any act or thing to be done in contravention of any provision of this Bylaw, or who refuses,
omits, or neglects to fulfill, observe, or perform any duty or obligation imposed by this
Bylaw, commits an offence punishable upon summary conviction and is subject to a fine as
listed in Schedule 'A'. Where a person commits repeated violations and continues to ignore
the provisions of this bylaw, or where a person is reckless and has caused or has the
potential to cause serious damage to property or has the potential to cause serious harm to
others, that person may be subject to a fine of not more than Ten Thousand Dollars
($10,000).
11.2. Each day during which any violation, contravention or breach of the Bylaw continues shall
be deemed a separate offence.
12. ENFORCEMENT
12.1. This Bylaw may be enforced by means of a ticket in the form prescribed for the purpose of
section 264 of the Community Charter.
12.2. Pursuant to section 264(1)(b) of the Community Charter, Bylaw Enforcement Officers, and
the Authorized Person are designated to enforce this Bylaw.
12.3. Pursuant to section 264(1)(c) of the Community Charter, the words or expression in
Column 1 of Schedule "A" to this Bylaw designate the offence committed under the Bylaw
section number appearing in Column 2 opposite the respective words or expression.
12.4. Pursuant to section 265(1)(a) of the Community Charter, the fine amount in Column 3 of
Schedule "A" to this Bylaw is the fine amount that corresponds to the words or expression
and section number set out in Columns 1 and 2 opposite the fine amount.
12.5. Council hereby delegates the authority to refer any disputed tickets to the Provincial Court
to Bylaw Enforcement Officers and to the Authorized Person.
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13. SEVERABILITY
13.1. If any portion of this Bylaw is held to be invalid by any Court of competent jurisdiction, the
invalid portion shall be severed and shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of
this Bylaw.
14. EFFECTIVE DATE
14.1. This bylaw shall come into full force and effect upon its adoption.
Read a First time this
16th
day of
April, 2012.
Read a Second time this
16th
day of
April, 2012.
Read a Third time this
7th
day of
May, 2012.
Reconsidered and Adopted by Council this 22nd
day of
May, 2012.
Mayor
Director of Corporate Administration
Certified a true and correct copy of the "District of
Chetwynd Wood Burning Appliance/Clean Air
Bylaw No. 963, 2012 as adopted on the 22nd day
of May, 2012."
Director of Corporate Administration
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DISTRICT OF CHETWYND
WOOD BURNING APPLIANCE/CLEAN AIR BYLAW NO. 963, 2012
SCHEDULE "A"
MUNICIPAL TICKET INFORMATION FINE SCHEDULE
Column 1:
Brief Description of Offence
Column 2:
Bylaw Section
Number
Column 3:
Fine
Using a wood burning appliance while an air quality advisory
is in effect.
3.1.1
$ 200.00
Failure to maintain wood burning appliance.
3.1.2
$ 100.00
Operating a wood burning appliance causing injury or
damage.
3.1.3
$ 100.00
Installation of a non-compliant wood burning appliance.
3.2.1
$ 300.00
Installation of a hydronic heater.
3.2.2
$ 300.00
Failure to install and maintain additional form of space
heating in new building.
3.3.1 (a) & (b)
$ 300.00
Burning prohibited fuel type.
3.4.1
$ 200.00
Conducting open burning.
4.1
$ 300.00
Igniting or maintaining a recreational fire during an air quality
advisory.
4.2/4.3
$ 100.00
Maintaining a recreational fire causing injury of damage.
4.4
$ 100.00
Burning prohibited fuel type in a recreational fire.
4.5
$ 100.00
Failure to control and supervise a recreational fire.
4.6 (b)
$ 100.00
Failure to possess fire extinguishing equipment.
4.6 (c)
$ 100.00
Failure to maintain a recreational fire in a safe location.
4.6 (e)
$ 100.00
Failure to provide means to control open burning.
5.1 (a) & (b)
$ 100.00
Endangering public health, safety and welfare.
6.1 (a)
$ 200.00
10
Creating a hazard to traffic.
6.1 (b)
$ 200.00
Failure to use dust control measures.
8.1
$ 200.00
Failure to use sufficient dust suppressing liquids.
8.2
$ 200.00
Sweeping or maintenance operations causing injury or
damage.
8.3
$ 200.00
Conducting sweeping or maintenance during air quality
advisory.
8.4
$ 200.00
Failure to maintain sites so that dust does not cause injury or
damage.
8.5
$ 200.00