By JOSEPH FITZGERALD

NORTH SMITHFIELD — The Town Council Monday voted to extend a moratorium on new installations of outdoor wood burning furnaces until Sept. 23.

 The six-month moratorium, which the council appoved in February, expires Aug. 1. The extension will continue to prevent new installations until the town is ready to adopt a local regulations that could either set strict regulations or ban the stoves altogether.
That proposed ordinance has been drafted, according to Town Solicitor Mark C. Hadden, and will be submitted to the council for a first reading on Sept. 2. The council will give the proposed legislation a second reading on Sept. 15.
One resident blasted the council for taking too much time to draft the ordinance, saying he wants to install a furnace before the heating season begins. Council President Linda Thibault defended the board, saying ordinances take time to be adopted because the interests of all parties must be taken into consideration and protected.
The town has been working with an expert consultant hired by the town to help the community study the effects of wood burning furnaces and draft a local ordinance that would regulate and control them.
The council had been considering the moratorium for months following a private nuisance case between two Pound Hill Road neighbors over one of the neighbor's use of an outdoor wood burning furnace. The local case in question involves resident Keith Klockars of 676 Pound Hill Road, who has been operating an outside wood boiler manufactured by Minnasota-based Central Boiler, Inc. Klockars' neighbor, John Wilbur, who lives 200 from Klockars' house, has complained to town officials about constant clouds of thick smoke he says has made it impossible for his family to enjoy their backyard.
An outdoor wood furnace resembles a small utility building that sits outdoors and contains a wood fired, water-jacketed stove. The hot water is circulated through underground pipes to the inside of the house, where they are hooked to a heat exchanger in the majority of cases. In some cases, they can be directly plumbed to the hot water heater or tied in with an existing floor heating system or boiler.
Proponents say outdoor wood furnaces are simple, clean and efficient. Instead of moving the wood and corresponding mess and bugs indoors, the wood burning furnace is outdoors next to the wood. Indoor air pollution is also cut to zero by moving the fire and smoke outside. Users typically load it once at night and once in the morning.
Opponents point to the fact that wood burning furnaces cause dense smoke that impacts neighbors by creating a nuisance and health problems. Most units come equipped with very short stacks and the smoke from these low stacks disperses poorly.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends emissions and air quality standards, but does not regulate where and when the wood-fired burners can be installed or used. A growing number of communities nationwide are setting their own rules on the increasingly popular wood boilers, which are not federally regulated. Some states, including Connecticut and Maine, have regulations and let their municipalities adopt even stricter limits or ban the boilers altogether. Massachusetts has considered statewide rules but has not enacted them.