[Gasification] COLORADANS WEIGH SALE OF FIRE RIGHTS

[Michael Redler]

Hey everyone,

I stumbled across this today and thought some of you might find it 
interesting (or maybe disturbing).

Mike*

*


  COLORADANS WEIGH SALE OF FIRE RIGHTS

By IVER PETERSON, SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: March 28, 1985

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9801E4DC1438F93BA15750C0A963948260&sec=&pagewanted=1 
<http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9801E4DC1438F93BA15750C0A963948260&sec=&pagewanted=1>

The day may not be far off in Colorado's high-country ski resorts when 
someone who wants to install a wood-burning fireplace or stove may first 
have to find someone willing to sell him the rights to have such a 
facility in his new home.

The idea is a new twist on the West's old habit of buying and selling 
rights to scarce commodities such as water, grazing and timber, and it 
may be extended to the blazing hearth because of the growing problem of 
wood-smoke pollution in the thin air of the high Rockies. Colorado's 
State Department of Health has begun research into possible health 
hazards from such pollution.

In a broad antipollution proposal being drawn up, the town of Telluride 
in southern Colorado is considering including a provision to allow 
owners of existing stoves and fireplaces to sell their right of 
ownership to others. Vail, a ski resort west of Denver, is also weighing 
a similar plan. If the laws are passed, winter resort developers may get 
to find out just what a roaring fire is worth to the ski crowd.

Right now, the assumption is that the open fire is worth quite a bit. 
''When you're talking to people about renting them a room for the night 
or to sell them a condo the first thing they tell you is they want a 
fireplace, they want a Jacuzzi and they want to be close to the lifts,'' 
said Brian Rapp, president of the Telluride Company and operator of the 
Telluride ski slopes. ''The vacation experience they see in their mind's 
eye, when they choose to go to the mountains, has a fireplace in it,'' 
he said.

Mr. Rapp is developing a 2,600-unit condominium and hotel resort village 
that will have about 1,000 fireplaces on a plateau above Telluride, an 
old mining town tucked in a deep box canyon walled by 12,000- and 
13,000-foot mountains on three sides. It is a location ready-made to 
trap wood smoke, and on cold, windless winter days at 8,000 feet, where 
the thin air prevents stoves from burning efficiently, the dawn is often 
greeted by a heavy pall of smog from the early-morning fires.

The town of Telluride is fighting Mr. Rapp's development on grounds that 
smoke from the development will drift down into the foggy bowl to the 
village, adding to its problems.

For its part, on Feb. 25 the village of 1,000 population passed an 
interim ban on the installation of new wood- burning stoves for six 
months. The ban was opposed by some, but it leaves the village's 250 
existing stoves and fireplaces free to operate for the time being.

The outright ban on solid-fuel-burning stoves and fireplaces is being 
seriously considered, said Leslie Sherlock, chairman of the Telluride 
Environmental Commission and a member of the Town Council.

Miss Sherlock agreed that the final air-quality plan, due to be 
submitted to the Town Council this summer, could include a provision 
allowing current stove owners to keep their stoves or to sell their 
right to have one to others.

''The potential for selling stove rights is one of a lot of ideas that 
we've got six months to look at before going to the Town Council with a 
final plan,'' she said.

Beaver Creek, next to Vail, has adopted a law, also on the books in 
Telluride, placing a limit of one fireplace per structure, even if the 
structure is a 1,000-room hotel.

One effect of selling stove rights would be to provide a rich bonus to 
some of the long-time residents of the old mining towns of Colorado that 
have been transformed into resorts. Those who heat their homes with wood 
could sell their rights to others and the income would offset the cost 
of buying other fuels.

Some may not want to switch from wood to other forms of heat. The 
propane gas explosion at a lodge in an Alta, Utah, ski resort two weeks 
ago that killed two tourists reminded many people in the Rockies that 
there are dangers in other fuels as well.

As for the possible price of a stove or fireplace right, Miss Sherlock 
said it is uncertain, since the law is still under consideration.

In the meantime, the town of Telluride is trying to head off Mr. Rapp 
and his development before the County Commission, which has yet to 
approve the development's air-quality plan. Mr. Rapp argues that 
fireplaces located on a wind-swept mesa 1,200 feet above the town can 
hardly contribute to Telluride's problems, and has offered to install 
warning lights in each condominium that would alert owners to smog 
conditions and warn them against the use of the fireplace.

But Miss Sherlock, fearful that her valley's rapid development will 
destroy its clear air and bright vistas, would rather see no new 
fireplaces on the mesa.

''Another developer wants to come in on the valley floor with 2,300 
units and the airport area is getting developed,'' she said, ''so if we 
don't get our regulations in place beforehand we're going to have a 
problem.''

Then she corrected herself and added, ''We already have a problem.''