Santa Cruz C.H.A.S.E. began in 2013 as the Leaf Blower Task Force Santa Cruz in order to study the issue of leaf blowers in the city. The group conducted a large-scale survey on residents, finding widespread and overwhelmingly negative opinions about the use of leaf blowers in the city. At the time, the group did not push for regulation, opting instead to educate the public about the full range of their health and environmental impacts and to encourage residents and landscapers to voluntarily end their use and switch to cleaner and quieter tools.
In the years following, the group (now Coalition for a Healthy & Safe Environment–C.H.A.S.E.) met periodically, shared the science surrounding the health and environmental impacts of two-stroke leaf blowers, and continued outreach and education. Meanwhile, most landscaping companies continued to use gas-powered leaf blowers, even as the evidence grew about their heavy impacts in populated areas, and even as the capability of battery-powered leaf blowers approached that of most gas-powered ones and their prices dropped dramatically.
So the group saw no compelling reason–scientific, economic, political or otherwise–for these archaic machines to continue soiling our air, taxing our health, and disturbing the peace. Especially when viable alternatives have long been available, whether that’s rakes powered by people or leaf blowers powered by batteries. Our members started a petition, organized residents across the city, and began meeting with city officials and council members.
The benefits are clear and waiting to be enjoyed by all–quieter neighborhoods, cleaner air, less smog, lower greenhouse gas emissions, less asthma, stress, and respiratory and other health impacts, etc.
We’re pleased that in June of 2024 the Santa Cruz City Council finally passed an ordinance phasing out the use of gas-powered leaf blowers. C.H.A.S.E. will continue conducting outreach to educate landscapers and the public about the ordinance, help landscapers connect with rebates on battery-powered equipment, and help advocates in other cities across the country (with the Quiet Clean Alliance) to kick gas-powered leaf blowers onto the dustbin of history.
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Q&A
Why do you want to ban gas leaf blowers? What people do on their property is their business. Personal actions are up to personal choice as long as they don’t impose too heavily on other people’s lives or property. The impacts of gas-powered leaf blowers are too high in populated areas and make one person’s landscaping practices everyone’s concern. The noise travels for several city blocks, affecting literally hundreds of people at once; the emissions travel farther and have well known costs to people’s health. And the noise is not just an annoyance, it’s highly disruptive, interfering with students’ education and studies, conversations and meetings, and all sorts of work and non-work. The use of gas blowers by the few (or their landscape companies) is a tax on everyone else’s health and well-being, which we pay every day.
Won’t this harm the landscape workers who use leaf blowers? No, it’s the current situation that harms landscape workers. They are the ones required to operate these machines, for hours each day, breathing in the carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbons, toxins and particulates, right at the source. When landscaping companies finally switch to battery blowers or manual tools (some in Santa Cruz have already), there will be just as much work as before, only their workers won’t be forced to sacrifice their health every day just to make a living.
Would this put landscapers out of business? No one likes being required to make a change, but manual and battery-powered tools are perfectly consistent with profitable landscaping businesses. In fact, sticking with gas leaf blowers costs more money over time. Batteries are an up-front cost for the newer blowers, but they result in lower operation costs immediately–the electricity is far cheaper than gas and the price is less volatile. Battery equipment fully pays for itself in about 10 -12 months, and then profits are ever higher. Switching to battery blowers saves hundreds of dollars per year, per blower, and incentive programs are slashing the up-front cost by up to 80%.
But you don’t have to take our word for it. Look at the many cities that have already phased out gas leaf blowers–landscape companies there are alive and well.
—Washington, D.C.’s ban on gas-powered leaf blowers went into effect January, 2022. Check out Quiet Clean D.C.’s Myths, Facts, and FAQ’s about gas leaf blower bans.—
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Endorsements
Partial List
Monterey Bay Air Resources District (MBARD)
Coalition for Clean Air
Breathe California
San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility
350 Silicon Valley
Sierra Club, Santa Cruz Group
Santa Cruz Climate Action Network
David Shaw, Director of Santa Cruz Permaculture, Coordinator of the Right Livelihood College at UC Santa Cruz
Tim Brattan, Non-profit Director
Ken Foster, Permaculture Instructor, Cabrillo College; Founder and Co-owner, Terra Nova Ecological Landscaping
Katie Fortney, Copyright Policy and Education Officer, California Digital Library, University of California
Gary A. Patton, Former Santa Cruz County Supervisor
Joe Jordan, Educator, Scientist
David Foster, Former Santa Cruz Planning Commissioner; past Executive Director, Habitat for Humanity Monterey Bay
Orin Martin, Chadwick Garden Manager, Apprenticeship Instructor, UCSC Farm and Garden
Jonathan Scher, Nurse Practitioner
Ron Perrigo, Clean Team
Erin Loury, Fisheries Biologist
Krista and Peter Cook, Owners/Brokers, Lighthouse Realty and Property Management
Lisa McAndrews, Madrone Landscape Group; former Horticulture Instructor, Cabrillo College
David Bezanson, Ph.D., Active Five-Committee Member, Physicians for Social Responsibility, National and SF Bay Chapter; Retired Clinical Psychologist and Neuropsychologist
Lydia Neilsen, Certified Permaculture Educator
Ami Chen-Mills, Non-profit Director and Educator
George Jarrow, RN, former Nurse Director, Dominican Hospital
Louise Pearse, BSN, RN
Trish Hildinger, Horticulturist
Keresha Durham, Educator and Environmental Leader
Ellen Vaughan, Higher Education Sustainability Manager
Doug Engfer, Santa Cruz City Water Commissioner and past Chair
Robert Orrizzi, Community Member
Tim Tennyson, Owner, Tennyson Construction
Related Links
City of Santa Cruz Climate Action Plan
City of Santa Cruz—Health in All Policies
Noise Free America
Quiet Communities
Quiet Clean Alliance
Contact
Email
https://www.chasesantacruz.org
Santa Cruz, California