Rachel Kurzius
James Fallows addresses ANC3D back in November. (Photo by Rachel Kurzius)
Updated with comments from Councilmember Mary Cheh.
Complaints about leaf blowers have moved from the neighborhood listservs to the D.C. Council today, when Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh today introduced a ban on gasoline-powered leaf blowers.
Back in November, a group called the Concerned Wesley Heights Neighbors rallied ANC 3D to pass a resolution calling upon Cheh to devise an appropriate legislative solution to the issue.
James Fallows, The Atlantic writer and former presidential speechwriter, is among the group’s leaders. He made the case to the ANC that the two-stroke engine used in leaf blowers is “louder…[and] more intensively polluting” than other machinery.
While regulation of emissions is outside of D.C. Council’s jurisdiction, it can regulate noise. “We couldn’t predicate the ban on the issue of emissions, but I got enthusiastic because those machines are big polluters,” Cheh told DCist.
Cheh’s Leaf Blower Regulation Amendment Act of 2016 would amend the Noise Control Act of 1977 to prohibit the sale and use of gasoline-powered leaf blowers, effective January 1, 2022. People can complain about violations to the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, and violators cannot be subject to a fine of more than $500.
Cheh says the 5-year phase-in will allow businesses and residents to replace their gas-powered blowers, “so it doesn’t render them obsolete.” Should the measure pass, Cheh won’t have to go to the store. “I have an electric blower and it’s quite different in the noise it makes.”
According to Fallows, using sound equipment in his home, the noise from gas-powered leaf blowers already exceeds D.C.’s current noise ordinance. Deb Fallows, James’ wife who also writes for The Atlantic, called enforcement of the ordinance a “whack-a-mole” operation at the ANC meeting. “It’s a single, episodic intervention that occurs.”
Cheh agrees. “All of the research I’ve done tells me how difficult it is to enforce a noise limit,” she says. “Other places have had a devil of a time doing it, and I don’t want the police department enforcing that.”
Another member of the Concerned Wesley Heights Neighbors, Haskell Small, is a composer who focuses on very quiet music and says the “off-key” leaf blowers have impeded his ability to work at home.
However, he has not been a part of writing the bill that made its way to the council today. “I have to be honest, I had no idea this was happening today,” says Small, who acknowledges that he spent most of December in Japan.
He says the group will meet this Friday and further discuss the legislation there.
Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans co-sponsored the legislation, which was referred to the Committee on Business, Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.
“If we could make life more peaceful and more environmentally friendly, I think we should do that,” Cheh says. “It’s not a zero-sum game. It’s not this and nothing else.”
