Debate over leaf blower bans rages at TC meeting

MAPLEWOOD, NJ — While Maplewood neighborhoods may be blissfully quiet this summer, landscapers claim the silence will cost homeowners increased lawn care fees. On Feb. 21, the Maplewood Township Committee continued the 14-year debate that has been raging around leaf blowers here, and dozens of landscapers came out to oppose further restrictions.

In 2003, the committee passed an ordinance banning all leaf blowers louder than 65 decibels, and last year the committee passed a pilot ordinance to restrict the use of gas-powered leaf blowers during the summer months. Now, after a subcommittee researched the subject, the committee is considering extending the summer ban, as well as several other suggestions.

Amendments suggested to the existing ordinance include extending the annual summer ban on gas-powered commercial leaf blowers — which last summer ran from June 1 through Sept. 1 — to May 15 through Oct. 15. The current 65-decibel restriction during this time period would be rendered moot, as all gas-powered commercial blowers would be banned during the summer. This ban would not apply to electric leaf blowers or to residential gas-powered leaf blowers, meaning leaf blowers owned and used by Maplewood homeowners.

Those using leaf blowers would also be subject to more restrictive hours of operation: Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday from 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.; and not at all on Sunday. These hours of operation apply to commercial and residential users, though the TC is considering allowing residential operators to blow leaves on Sundays.

The committee is also considering restricting the number of leaf blowers being used at once to two per property, requiring operators to wear protective equipment for both their ears and lungs, mandating that leaves cannot be left for collection by the Department of Public Works for more than seven days, and dramatically increasing the fines for failing to adhere to these restrictions to a minimum of $500 to $1,000 for a first offense.

At the meetings on both Feb. 7 and 21, Committeeman Greg Lembrich expressed his hesitance to pass these changes in their current form, saying the ordinance should apply to residential operators as well. He also argued for stricter enforcement, arguing that creating a rule that is not enforced is the same as not creating the rule.

According to a Feb. 7 report from Deputy Mayor Nancy Adams, the reasons for the township’s continued interest in restricting the use of leaf blowers is concern regarding the ecological and health impacts of the pollutants released by two-stroke engines, as well as the noise they create.

“There is a lot of information on leaf blowers we found, most of it about what’s wrong with them,” Davis shared in her Feb. 7 report. “This concerned a couple of subcommittee members who don’t agree with the ban. However, when asked to find information that supported the use of leaf blowers as being good for anyone other than expediting the work of gathering lawn debris for the contractors who use them, there was nothing positive found nor shared with the committee. There is no environmental reason that leaf blowers are good. There is no support that the leaf blowers are positive in any way other than the ease with which they blow debris and the fact that contractors can do their work more quickly and easily by using them.”

The main complaint is with two-stroke engines, which were originally manufactured for motorcycles, though they are rarely seen these days as they rarely pass emission tests required for road vehicles in this country. Many of these engines were then repurposed for other machines, such as leaf blowers, which do not carry such stringent inspection protocols. By comparison, four-stroke engines, which are more commonly used on “walk-behind” leaf blowers, are more eco-friendly and quieter; nevertheless, the proposed Maplewood regulation would apply to all gas-powered leaf blowers.

According to a 2015 Environmental Protection Agency report, gas-powered lawn and garden equipment, or GLGE, releases pollutants into the air such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, particulate matter, and volatile organic compounds, such as benzene, butadiene, acetaldehyde, formaldehyde, toluene and others.

The report goes on to state that these pollutants pose serious health threats, such as causing respiratory damage and diseases, contributing to early death and causing cardiovascular harm. Research also shows that these pollutants may cause harm to the central nervous system, may cause reproductive and developmental harm, and may cause cancer, according to the report. Additionally, the elderly and children are more likely to be harmed by these pollutants, as well as lawn-care workers who are in close proximity daily.

“Communities, environmental and public health officials should create policies and programs to protect the public from GLGE air pollutants and promote non-polluting alternatives,” the report reads.

The report also points out, however, that leaf blowers only account for 9 percent of GLGE; the majority, at 40 percent, is lawnmowers. Nevertheless, the two-stroke engines on leaf blowers, vacuums, trimmers, edgers and brush cutters account for the vast majority of fine particulate pollution in landscape-maintenance activities, the report states.

A few Maplewood residents came out to support the suggested amendments and to push for even stricter regulations.

“I just want to thank the committee for their very fair research and discussion, for sticking with this issue, and I would urge the Township Committee to adopt the amendments as they’re suggested here and I look forward to finally, after 13 or 14 years, to have some relief for Maplewood residents from the noise and the dust of leaf blowers,” resident Jane Conrad said. She added that she was pleased with the expanded time of the ban, as it will allow children to adjust to their routes as they walk to school without the noise and distraction of leaf blowers and it will allow springtime pedestrians to enjoy the outdoors more.

And her husband added that he would like to see the ban extended to the full 12 months of the year.

“There’s a lot of talk about the economic impacts of blowers for the companies that use them or the homeowners that employ the companies, but we haven’t mentioned that there are costs to the use of the blowers to the other residents and that’s the reason for this whole movement and the 13-year history of this thing,” Jonathan Conrad said, reminding those gathered that the noise and dust created are not limited to the property being cleaned.

The Conrads were joined by another resident, who was mostly concerned about the health impact of gas-powered leaf blowers, stating that their use forces people to alter their paths when walking and roll up their car windows, although this does not keep 100 percent of the particulates out either.

“It’s not just about noise; it goes a lot deeper than that. There have been a lot of studies done, health studies, environmental studies, that clearly show the detrimental impact on people, children, elderly, everyone, pets, the environment,” William Steinbrunn said. “It’s not just leaves that are being blown around; it could be feces, it could be pesticides, it could be a number of things.”

But the few who came out in support of the regulations were greatly outnumbered by the dozens of landscapers who spoke against the restrictions. The professionals’ main complaint was that the ban would force them to use less effective methods — such as brooms and rakes — to clear leaves, which would require more hours and more manpower, thereby increasing their fees.

Former landscape business owner Tom Castronovo, now the executive editor and publisher of Gardener News, pointed out that when clearing streets of leaves, it is safer and quicker to use a leaf blower to blow the leaves back onto private property.

“By eliminating the leaf blower, I would have to put my people in the street with a broom,” Castronovo said, adding that the employee with the broom would need to be joined by a second employee with a shovel and a third employee to ensure that the other two are not hit by cars. “If someone had a leaf blower, they could clean that roadway up in 20 or 25 seconds.”

And Lori Jenssen, the executive director of the New Jersey Nursery and Landscape Association, cited reports showing that such a ban could potentially raise costs for homeowners by 21 percent, according to statistics gathered in California, where hundreds of towns have banned leaf blowers.

“We did some research as well from other states that have bans, and the owner of a landscape company in Massachusetts said gas-powered leaf blowers save time for his employees and so they save money for the landowners,” Jenssen said, adding that leaf blowers are “basically essential” for landscapers as an area that can be cleaned by a leaf blower in just one minute would take approximately 45 minutes to clean with a broom.

Adams questioned Jenssen as to whether the labor cost increases take into account the amount of money saved on gas. Jenssen was not sure, but believed that, even so, it would not come out evenly.

Jenssen also offered her services to help the township come up with alternatives that are more agreeable to landscapers, and while Lembrich welcomed her help, he pointed out that now would be the time to propose these alternatives.

“I don’t think our proposal or the proposals that we have presented are necessarily ideal, but I also don’t think we’ve heard anything better and some of the proposals that we get don’t take into account that we have to enforce it,” Lembrich told Jenssen. “If you’re going to give us an alternative solution, tell us the details, tell us what it is. We’ve been talking about this since October and no one has given us anything better. We are not going to come up with a perfect solution and if you can’t give us a good alternative, we’re going to go with what we’ve got.”

“I think you can see by our membership that is here tonight that we are willing to come in, sit down and come up with a resolution to this that will make everyone happy,” Richard Goldstein, the vice president of the New Jersey Landscaping Contractors Association, said, pointing out that with this current compromise, neither landscapers nor residents are actually happy.

Nelson Lee of the New Jersey Landscape Contractors Association suggested limiting the ban to run only from Memorial Day to Labor Day, saying that cleanup without leaf blowers during that time — while still extremely difficult, time-consuming and labor intensive — is more feasible. He added that, the better the job that landscapers do, the less there is for Maplewood’s Department of Public Works to do. But Adams disagreed that significantly more leaves and bark drop off of trees during the weeks in question.

Nevertheless, landscaper Jeff Carpenter, who told those gathered that he had been in landscaping since before the invention of the backpack blower, stressed the assistance private landscapers give the DPW.

“We provide a definite benefit to your DPW because we put the leaves out so they can come and collect them,” Carpenter said. “If we can’t get them out as efficiently, then that will prolong the leaf season and potentially make your DPW work harder.

Landscapers also questioned why the restrictions would only apply to commercial operators, when the gas-powered leaf blowers used by homeowners create the same pollutants and have the same ecologic and health impacts.

Lembrich responded that he would be in favor of expanding the ban to include residential use, but admitted that getting the support for that would be difficult.

“Politically, maybe it’s easier to pass rules for people who can’t vote for you, but I am strongly in favor of making whatever rules we institute applicable across the board,” Lembrich said.

Resident Carrie Gordon, who spoke in favor of the extended summertime ban, also stated that she would like for the restrictions to be applied to homeowners as well.

The majority of committee members also voiced concerns regarding the difficulty of enforcement.

“One of the reasons we’re here is because the existing ordinance wasn’t followed by 95 percent of the contractors in town and last year’s ordinance wasn’t followed by 30 percent,” Adams said.

While contractors agreed that enforcement is key, they do not believe a failure to enforce past ordinances should drive the decision to increase restrictions for those following the rules.

“If someone is not (following the ordinance), fine them, fine them hard, fine them hard enough that they won’t do it again,” Charles Bravoco of P&P Lawnmower on Springfield Avenue in Maplewood said.

The landscapers are also not in favor of this push for them to use electric leaf blowers, which are simply not as strong — and therefore not as effective — as gas-powered leaf blowers.

“These tools help us expedite the work and keep your community clean,” Lee said. “We understand that you’re trying to limit the amount of pollutants in the air, but using electric leaf blowers just isn’t feasible in our business right now and using battery-operated definitely isn’t feasible right now, only because they haven’t perfected the life of the batteries.”

Castronovo added that many houses do not have outdoor electrical outlets in the front, making electric leaf blowers impractical because the landscapers would need to carry and manage a lot of extension cords.

But while the regulations do not restrict the use of electric or battery-powered leaf blowers, the suggested ordinance does not push for their use.

“If it were up to me by myself, I would ban them all,” Adams said.

As for the limit to two leaf blowers per property, Jonathan Trenk of A&J Landscape Design argued that this restriction is poorly conceived since not all properties are the same size.

“I work on a residential property in Maplewood (on) Tower Drive, it is 5 acres; I think the back part is about 300 feet from the street,” Trenk said. “There was one year it took me six hours with six employees to do the cleanup on the home; one year it took five hours with eight of us to clean it up.” According to Trenk, with just two leaf blowers, it would take him approximately two and a half days to clean the property. And, as he charges by the hour, this would increase the price for his customer.

Despite these concerns from landscapers, the Dec. 7 report stated that, as long as the rules are enforced to maintain a level playing field for all landscapers, there should not be excessive increases in prices.

“There are threats that contractors will have to charge more to clients if they are not permitted to use leaf blowers, but there is no evidence gathered to support this premise in places where leaf blowers have been banned,” Adams shared in her Dec. 7 report. “The reality is that there is plenty of competition to keep prices from rising too much, if at all, and there is substantial savings in fuel that mitigates extra labor costs involved with sweeping.”

But the landscapers disagree. Lembrich even said at the Feb. 21 meeting that a lot of landscapers had told the subcommittee that, while they would have no problem following the ban, they were concerned others would not, creating an uneven playing field.

“You’re affecting my livelihood; I run my business in the spring and the fall with sometimes four, five, six or seven employees to get the job done,” Trenk said. “I’ve been working more and more in this town — that’s all by referral, I don’t advertise at all — and so that’s just something to be thought of, because I know I’m probably not going to want to stay in this town.”

  Maplewood DPW, Maplewood Township Committee