About

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 to voluntarily end their use and to ask their landscapers to do the same.

In the years following, the group (now Coalition for a Healthy & Safe Environment–C.H.A.S.E.) met periodically, reported on 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 electric leaf blowers approached that of most gas-powered ones and their prices dropped dramatically. Both the science and the economics favored turning the page on these machines.

So the community group felt there is no longer any sound reason to defend gas-powered leaf blowers‘ continual soiling of our air, taxing of our health, and disturbance of the peace. Our members began meeting with city officials and council members, started a petition, and began drafting language for an ordinance to ban gas-powered leaf blowers within the city.

The benefits are clear, and waiting to be claimed–quieter neighborhoods, cleaner air, less smog, lower greenhouse gas emissions, less asthma, stress, and other health impacts, and so on.

We created this website in July of 2020 to share the information we’ve gathered, further grow support for our cause, and press the city council to finally take this long overdue step to a cleaner, healthier, saner city.

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On this page:

Q&A
Join our Mailing List
Endorsements
Related Links
Contact

Q&A

Why do you want to ban 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. But the impacts of gas-powered leaf blowers are too high in neighborhoods and make one person’s landscaping practices everyone’s business. The noise travels for several city blocks, affecting literally hundreds of people at once, and the emissions have well known costs to people’s health. And the noise is not just an annoyance, it’s highly disruptive–it interferes with students’ education and studies, with conversations and meetings, and with all sorts of work and economic activity. The use of leaf blowers by the few (or their landscape companies) is like a tax on everyone else–on our health, productivity, communications, ability to work, and quality time with our families.

Won’t a ban harm the landscape workers who use leaf blowers? No, it’s the current situation that harms landscape workers. They are the ones operating 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 to make a living.

Would a ban on leaf blowers 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, the reluctance to adapt to improving technology costs money over time. Batteries for electric blowers are an up-front cost but result in lower operation costs immediately–electricity is far cheaper than gas. And the investment fully pays for itself in about 10 months, after which operating costs remain lower and profits rise. Switching to battery blowers saves hundreds of dollars per year, per blower. And the prices and longevity of batteries continue to improve. But you don’t have to take our word for it; look at the many cities that have already banned 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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To get the city council to finally pass a leaf blower ordinance, we’ll need to be able to reach out to our allies and supporters at various points. We can only do this together!

Endorsements

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

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

Related Links

City of Santa Cruz Climate Action Plan
City of Santa Cruz—Health in All Policies
Noise Free America
Quiet Communities

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