Will the leaf blower debate heat up in Walnut Creek with a new petition drive?

So far, Concerned Citizen, the mystery organizer of this petition drive, has gathered 49 signatures calling for a ban on gas-powered leaf blowers in Walnut Creek city limits.

The petitioner is hoping to gather 10,000 signatures. The petitioner certainly has a ways to go, and so far a fair number of the signatures come from people outside of Walnut Creek. But these things can take time, the Quiet Orinda folks told me at one point.

Once the petitioner reaches the 10,000 mark, the petitioner will present the signatures to the City Council and to landscapers who use leaf blowers to clear clients' yards of leaves and other debris.

It will be interesting to see how far the petitioner gets with this, and I'd love to find out who this mystery person is. So call or email me!

A lot of my neighbors use leaf blowers, and a lot of my other neighbors hate them. Here's the video I shot of the leaf blower guy doing his work in my cul-de-sac. The video is not so great, but the sound! The sound!

Let the leaf blower debate begin! Hey, maybe Walnut Creek can earn its way into the feature well of a national magazine, as Quiet Orinda did with The New Yorker. I always want to find ways to push Walnut Creek into the national consciousness, especially on issues pertaining to suburban life.

Here's some of what the petition says:

"We should not have to tolerate the deafening sound of leaf blowers outside our homes every single day of the week. Not only do they disturb the peace but according to Quiet Orinda, a group that is raising interest in the subject, they "pollute the air with unburned fuel and hydrocarbons." As well as pollute the air by blowing "matter containing animal fecal matter, molds, spores, fungi, diesel soot, and many allergens," into the air.

Being forced to tolerate this type of sound at the level it is produced, for extended hours, on a daily basis is unreasonable. There are alternatives that are cleaner, quieter and more considerate of the residents, whom the service is intended to assist."

Turn off that leaf blower!

That's what I yelled out my window yesterday morning at the landscaper using a roaring-loud leaf blower to clear something from in front of my house. Leaves? I guess, but there are not that many scattered on the ground this time of year.

 I was working at home, on a conference call with some people in New York and Southern California. I couldn't hear what they were saying, and they couldn't hear what I was saying. But they could hear the leaf blower, all the way from in front of my home in Walnut Creek.

My co-workers could also hear me yell "Turn it off!" But the landscaper couldn't hear me, not over the sound of that damned leaf blower.  (And, I was using a new phone, and, no, I had not yet learned where the stupid mute button was.)

Actually, that's been the first time I've been home in the middle of the day when the landscapers with the leaf blowers have come to my cul-de-sac.  I'd say the sound from that machine was as loud as a locomotive rushing 10 feet from my window.  I probably could have endured it--I knew it would stop eventually--if it weren't for the fact that I was trying to talk to people to get work done.

My experience with our neighborhood leaf blower guys comes the week that Quiet Orinda, a grass-roots group of residents in that town, premieres its professionally produced documentary about the nuisance and environmental hazards of leaf blowers.

The big screening will take place 7:15 p.m.  Saturday at the Orinda Theater as part of the 12th annual California Independent Film Festival. Quiet Orinda was formed in 2009 to raise awareness about the air and noise pollution caused by leaf blowers and to promote legislation to encourage healthier alternatives to these machines.

The video, Quiet Orinda, presents "candid, unrehearsed" interviews with Orinda residents who describe how the use of leaf blowers in their neighborhoods hurts their well-being and their enjoyment of their homes and community.

Saturday's screening will be the first public screening of the video.Tickets can be ordered in advance at the California Independent Film Festival website.

Quiet Orinda has a petition drive going to gather signatures to urge the City Council in that town to consider banning the use of leaf blowers.

Does Walnut Creek need a similar campaign?

Contra Costa anti-leaf blower group taking their message to the movies

Quiet Orinda, a well-organized group that is trying to get their city to ban leaf blowers, has created a short documentary that it will air at the California Independent Film Festival in Orinda in April.

The documentary has residents describing the reasons they moved to Orinda--its quiet, its beauty--and how they find it so disturbing when landscapers bring in blasting, shrieking leaf blowers to clean yards up.

You can view a trailer of the documentary at the Quiet Orinda website.

"Quiet Orinda was formed in 2009 by a group of Orinda residents concerned about the problems of air and noise pollution caused by the widespread use of leaf blowers in our city. Our aim is to educate the citizens of Orinda about healthier alternatives to leaf blowers, and to promote legislation to encourage these alternatives. We invite you to join with us today; please click on the “Register” button on our home page."

The Quiet Orinda folks are also gathering signatures and provide a link to a new report by Clean Air California that describes the air and noise pollution consequences of having three million leaf blowers in the state: "The majority are gasoline-powered leaf blowers. If growth trends continue, soon there will be more than 6 million leaf blowers in California, at which time, air pollution, water pollution, blown dust, and noise, will be twice as bad as today."

Readers of this blog indicate that they are not thrilled by the noise these machines make around Walnut Creek. But a 1990 Walnut Creek ordinance allows leaf blowers to operate within city limits during certain times and under certain conditions. The ordinance covering leaf blowers is in Municipal Code, under Title 4 (Public Welfare, Morals and Conduct), Chapter 6 (Nuisances), Article 2.


Under "Prohibited Noises Enumerated," and Maintenance Equipment it states: "The use and operation of any noise-creating commercial or residential landscaping or home maintenance equipment or tools including, but not limited to, hammers, blowers, trimmers, mowers, chainsaws, power fans or any engine, the operation of which causes noise due to the explosion of operating gases or fluids, other than between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. on weekdays and 9:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. on weekends and holidays. (§1, Ord. 1753, eff. November 8, 1990)."

Grrrr: The leaf blower guys are blasting around my house this morning

I'm home on vacation, but not really on vacation... Doing a bit of work here and there (while also watching, out of the corner of my eye, a Russell Crowe movie.)

But I just felt like I was standing next to a jet engine taking off. Yeah, the leaf blower guys came sweeping through the neighborhood. 

Ouch! And RROOOAAAARRRRGGGGRRROOOOGGGMMMNNKKKKGGGG!

I can't get much work done at this moment, and I'm going to have do some some serious rewinding on the parts of the movie drowned out by the noise. 

Here are links back to prior posts. The first raises the question about the use of leaf blowers--especially of the 75-decibal-plus gas-powered kind--in Walnut Creek and describes bans on the use of leaf blowers instituted by other cities.  The second lists the Walnut Creek noise ordiance that applies to leaf blowers.

For those annoyed by leaf blowers, here's Walnut Creek's relevant noise ordinance

With all the concern expressed by readers about the noise made by leaf blowers, how clever of one of you to to find out which city ordinance covers these noisy devices and the hours when they can and cannot operate.

The ordinance is in the city's Municipal Code, under Title 4 (Public Welfare, Morals and Conduct), Chapter 6 (Nuisances), Article 2.

Under "Prohibited Noises Enumerated," and Maintenance Equipment it states:

"The use and operation of any noise-creating commercial or residential landscaping or home maintenance equipment or tools including, but not limited to, hammers, blowers, trimmers, mowers, chainsaws, power fans or any engine, the operation of which causes noise due to the explosion of operating gases or fluids, other than between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. on weekdays and 9:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. on weekends and holidays. (§1, Ord. 1753, eff. November 8, 1990)."

In plain English, you can only operate leaf blowers between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. on weekdays and between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. on weekends and holidays.

But as you can see, the ordinance went into effect back in 1990. So, maybe it's time for the city to revisit that issue?

Should Walnut Creek ban leaf blowers? What do you think about them?

It's a timely question to ask, now that many of our streets, walkways, lawns, and gardens are carpeted by newly fallen leaves. How do we address what some of view as a blight on carefully landscaped yards? Or what can definitely be a safety hazard—as when a layer of leaves left on a walkway becomes wet and slippery from rain?

Some of us get out our gas-powered leaf blowers, or hire guys who have these gas-powered blowers, to come out and clean up the mess.

One reader who lives in the Northgate area is not wild about leaf blowers. In fact, this reader, who works at home, has been driven—if not crazy in suburbia, then into fits of irritation—by the incredibly loud noise these machines make when they are being used to clean up neighbors' yards.

"My complaint is noise," writes this reader, who shall go by the name Leif Earacheson. "Most leaf blowers produce a penetrating, irritating, and grating, noise. There is nothing else like it – not freeways, garbage trucks, lawn mowers, chainsaws, low flying planes, garage bands, or Harleys. ... Every weekday there are various gardeners who come and violate the peace in the valley."

Mr. Earacheson contacted me to find out if others in Walnut Creek are similarly irritated--or driven crazy--by leaf blowers. He also shared his contact with Mayor Gary Skrel about the issue. It doesn't sound like the city is inclined to deal with it:

“The City discussed banning them in 2006 during the preparation of General Plan 2025," Skrel wrote Mr. Earacheson (or, it would probably be easier to write, "Leif.). "And it was acknowledged that, since the Bay Area Air Quality Management District continues to permit the use of leaf blowers throughout our region, the City of Walnut Creek will also allow their use...”

Leif has done considerable research that shows that a number of cities around the state have come to recognize leaf blowers as major pollutants of the noise and air—and have passed ordinances limiting or banning their use. Those cities include, according to Leif: Belvedere, Berkeley, Beverly Hills, Carmel, Claremont, Del Mar, Indian Wells, Laguna Beach, Lawndale, Los Altos, Malibu, Mill Valley, Piedmont, Santa Monica, Hermosa Beach, West Hollywood, Palo Alto, Portola Valley, and Sunnyvale.

I had no idea about what pollutants leaf blowers could be before Leif sent me his “dossier.”

Here’s some key points about the hazards of leaf blowers, from a document, posted on NoNoise.org. This document discusses the situation in Sacramento, our state’s capital, but it could also apply to Walnut Creek as well. This document also provides scientific and public policy statements regarding the hazards of leaf blowers.

In Sacramento’s General Plan, the normally acceptable ambient noise level in residential areas is no more than 60 decibals; levels higher than 70 decibals represents an unacceptable level.

The average blower measures 70-75 dB at 50 feet according to a manufacturer's lobbyist , thus louder at any closer distance. Leaf blowers are routinely used less than 50 feet from unconsenting pedestrians and neighboring homes that may be occupied by home workers, retirees, day sleepers, children, the ill or disabled, and pets.

Noise seems to be a form of pollution that we often overlook, when we’re considering the quality of our drinking water or energy use. But, according to this same site, “Noise interferes with communication, sleep, and work. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says noise degrades quality of life by impairing communication and social interaction; reducing the accuracy of work, particularly complex tasks; and creating stressful levels of frustration and aggravation that last even when the noise has ceased."

Besides noise pollution, leaf blowers also contribute to air pollution: “Leaf blower motors are inordinately large emitters of CO, NOx, HC, and PM. … Two-stroke engine fuel is a gasoline-oil mixture, thus especially toxic. Particles from combustion are virtually all smaller than PM2.5. According to the American Lung Association, a leaf blower causes as much smog as 17 cars.

As Leif asked, what do you think about leaf blowers? And about leaf blowers in Walnut Creek?

Personally, I had never seriously considered the nuisance and polluting factors of leaf blowers until Leif shared his research. I’m usually never at home when neighbors have their landscapers, who regularly use leaf blowers, come to clean up their yards. I’m at work. I understand wanting to have a leaf-free walkway, for safety reasons, especially if the resident is elderly. But wouldn't a rake do just as well for that purpose?

Another thing I don’t understand: This need people have to blow the leaves off their lawns or out of their shrubs and flower beds. Does it hurt the grass or those plants to have them covered with leaves? Could the decaying leaves actually provide natural and useful nutrients? My father always thought so. He tended to let the leaves stay.

Gardening experts? Please chime in.

Personally, I like seeing a carpet of leaves covering a lawn or shrubs. It makes me think of the beauties of autumn. If the leaves don’t hurt the underlying vegetation, then I suspect that people’s need to have pristine, leaf-free lawns, even in the heavy leaf fall of autumn, is another one of those interesting examples of human beings needing to control nature. Even if it means using an air and noise polluting leaf blower to do so.