Gas-Powered Leaf Blower Ban Passes City Council With Phase-Out Date

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Alexandria City Council is hoping to make neighborhoods less noisy and polluted with the passage of a gas-powered leaf blower ban on Saturday.

City Council's action will make Alexandria the first Virginia locality to ban the gas-powered lawn devices. DC area localities that have implemented or passed bans include the District of Columbia and Montgomery County, Maryland. State legislation allowing localities to ban gas leaf blowers has not advanced. However, the city is using a Virginia attorney general opinion that city charters give localities authority to ban gas leaf blowers.

To help residents and landscaping companies with the transition, City Council endorsed an 18-month transition period to the ban. That's less than the two-year transition period originally recommended by city staff. City staff indicated that they will be working on what kind of incentives could be available to residents through outside partners to help with the change. The city has a new agreement with Clean Air Partners and are working on a residential leaf blower exchange program.

The city will be working to replace its own gas leaf blowers with electric ones within a year. The estimated cost of $75,000 was included in the latest city budget. The budget also includes a new city inspector position focused on noise and environmental concerns.

Gas-powered leaf blowers are considered to be louder and more polluting to the air than electric types. City regulations already limit use of power lawn and garden equipment to 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends and holidays. According to the city, there are regular noise complaints from residents associated with gas-powered leaf blowers.

Several residents spoke in support of phasing out gas-powered leaf blowers due to pollution and noise concerns.

Alexandria resident Paul Decourt said he has been working with neighbors to ban gas-powered leaf blowers. The group even went to Richmond to advocate for legislation, demonstrating the noise of the gas-powered devices in front of the State Capitol building.

"I want to thank you for considering even banning these leaf blowers and understanding this is a historic opportunity for the city of Alexandria to really set the pace, an opportunity to really claim its nickname eco city," said Decourt.

Andrew Macdonald, a former Alexandria vice mayor, called for a one-year delayed effective date, noting that residents and companies can use alternative tools and have time to buy electric leaf blowers.

"They produce an enormous amount of pollution, enormous amount of noise, and a lot of times they just blow the leaves into the streets, where the city then has to come in and pick them up or they clog the storm sewers," said Macdonald.

Alexandria resident Greg Delawie said you know it's a beautiful day "because you hear the sounds of two, three or more gas powered leaf blowers, like 100 decibel wasps droning at you." He noted that workers like first responders and medical personnel as well as babies may be sleeping during the day when leaf blowers are running.

"These machines are noisy, cause pollution and make it difficult for people to sleep during the day," said Delawie. "The noise of these machines is worse than a low flying airplane, because it goes on for half an hour, an hour or more, even when it finally stops, the racket is likely to resume shortly thereafter from yet another yard in the neighborhood."

Delawie also pointed to the "extremely polluting" nature of gas leaf blowers.

"You can drive a modern, gas powered car for 1,000 miles, and it will not pollute our air or the Chesapeake Bay as much as one of these machines," said Delawie. "They represent a classic economic externality in which the owner of the equipment does not bear the full cost of using it. Instead, the cost of noise, stress and pollution is borne by those of us in the community and the workers who operate them."

Councilmember Kirk McPike noted health concerns associated with the gas devices' pollution.

"I worry about the environmental impact of these devices, not only the just unregulated carbon that they're putting out into the air, health impacts on the people who are working for hours breathing in that smog and the effects it has on their bodies," said McPike. "This is, I think, a great step that we're taking."

Councilmember Abdel Elnoubi noted officials got a resident email about electric leaf blowers sounding as loud as gas-powered ones. The councilmember supported the gas-powered leaf blower ban but believes the city should address concerns with electric-powered ones if they arise.

Jesse Maines, an official with the city's Transportation and Environmental Services, noted that the decibels are typically lower for electric-powered leaf blowers. According to a City Council memo, the noise range for gas-powered leaf blowers is 70 to 115 decibels. Electric-powered leaf blowers range from 65 to 70 decibels, although newer models would be as low as 59 decibels. Gas-powered ones also produce low frequency sound.

"The frequency of it travels farther and can penetrate more into homes. So just the nature of the noise being generated by the gas power leaf blower, the engine itself, it's loud," said Maines.

City staff hosted community meetings to present options for regulations on gas-powered leaf blowers on March 13 and 26 and take public input. Staff also reached out to residents, landscape companies and civic associations to gather feedback. According to a city memo, a majority of residents, organizations and commissions supported a gas-powered leaf blower ban, with a phase-out period. However, property owners and landscaping companies shared concerns about costs, reduced blowing power and limits on battery life with electric types, the work taking longer and requiring more workers, and the need for charging infrastructure.

Based on landscaping companies' feedback, city staff estimated it would cost $5,000 for a small company with less than five employees to transition to electric leaf blowers. It could cost $10,000 to $55,700 for a business with five to 15 employees and $80,000 to $100,000 for a large business with more than 15 workers.

According to the memo to City Council, enforcement of the ban would be focused on landscaping companies working with gas-powered leaf blowers and property owners employing landscaping companies using these gas-powered types. Enforcement would affect the property owner if they are the ones using the leaf blower.

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