The best holiday gifts are the ones that keep giving, and ORCAA offers homeowners a chance to give themselves a gift that will give back to their families and their neighbors for years to come.
Wood stoves, while popular sources of home heating, do have drawbacks. They require you cut (or buy) loads of firewood that must be stored in a dry location. Toting that wood into your home brings in lots of dirt, debris, and crawly things all winter. And the older the stove, the more wood you’ll burn and the more smoke you’ll generate.
Fortunately, ORCAA has secured funding to make it easier for residents to replace their old wood stoves with something cleaner and more efficient. The Washington Department of Ecology provided ORCAA with a Wood Smoke Reduction grant to help reduce particulate matter (PM) pollution in all six counties within our jurisdiction.
General requirements
The applicants who burn at least 1 cord of wood per year must remove and destroy one or more of the following:
- a wood stove that is NOT compliant with 2020 New Source Performance Standards
- a fireplace insert that is NOT compliant with 2020 New Source Performance Standards
Program participation is limited to available funds.
The grant is available in two forms.
Replacement Award
For the more densely populated areas where the risk of elevated levels of PM pollution is greatest (all of Thurston and Mason Counties, and eastern Clallam and Jefferson Counties), residents may opt for the Replacement Award.
Residents who qualify for the above — who, again, burn at least 1 cord of wood per year — and who are installing a new gas, pellet, or electric appliance may qualify. The program requires professional installation of new devices, and ORCAA’s retailer partners handle the paperwork and billing. Program participation is limited to available funds.
Contact your local hearth products dealer, or HVAC dealer, for more details. The current rate of support for changing out a qualified wood stove to Natural Gas, Propane, electric ‘fire’ place, or pellet stove is $1,000, and $2,000 for changing to an electric Heat Pump – Ductless or Ducted.
Recycle Award
Residents who meet the same requirements listed above, but who simply want to remove and destroy an old, uncertified wood appliance without installing a new qualified appliance may apply for a Wood Stove Recycling Award.
This Wood Stove Recycling Incentive is available for residents of all six counties within ORCAA’s jurisdiction: Clallam, Grays Harbor, Jefferson, Mason, Pacific, and Thurston Counties.
Residents who qualify for the above — who, again, burn at least 1 cord of wood per year — and who simply want to remove and destroy an old, uncertified wood appliance without installing a new gas or electric appliance may qualify for a $500 Recycling Award. Program participation is limited to available funds. To participate, download the forms and complete them exactly as explained on the instructions on the form available online at Wood Smoke Reduction Program – ORCAA.
