Vouchers can help upgrade fireplaces

The Feather River Air Quality Management District is providing $500 vouchers to Yuba-Sutter residents who want to upgrade their fireplaces and wood stoves into something less polluting.

To qualify for the voucher, wood stoves must be older than 1990, be uncertified and in a home in Yuba or Sutter counties. Replacements can be bought from a participating retailer and installed professionally, using a $500 voucher from the air district. The old stove would then be destroyed.

Residents can opt to have either a new stove or gas insert installed, depending on what they have now. Vouchers will be available beginning Friday at 3 p.m., and can be obtained through filling out a form on FRAQMD's Web site. Vouchers are first come, first serve, and the program will last through March 1 or whenever funding for the vouchers runs out.

The air district is also starting another program to allow Internet and mobile phone users to receive e-mails or text messages with the next day's air quality forecast, or only when the forecast calls for unhealthy conditions.

Residents will also get text messages during unusual events such as a wildfire smoke air quality advisory.