Photo by Dean Hochman.

Councilmembers got the blow-by-blow on a bill to ban the sale and use of gas-powered leaf blowers in D.C. by 2022 during a public hearing on Monday afternoon.

The vast majority of the 20 witnesses spoke in favor of the measure, which would still allow battery-powered blowers. Proponents blamed gas-powered blowers for excessive noise and air pollution, calling the low-frequency sound they emit uniquely disruptive.

But those voicing opposition said that the ban would be the real disruption, creating an undue burden on the people trying to maintain the District’s manicured greenery. The director of D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs testified that the bill had “significant barriers to successful enforcement.”

Cheh reintroduced the Leaf Blower Regulation Amendment Act of 2017 more than a year ago, in April of 2017. The bill, which would amend the Noise Control Act of 1977 (the council can regulate noise, but not emissions), was referred then to the council’s fine.

She had previously introduced the ban at the start of 2016, shortly after ANC 3D passed a resolution calling upon her to devise an appropriate legislative solution to the issue of leaf blowing. (Bills expire at the end of each legislative session.) That resolution followed organizing from a group of neighbors in Wesley Heights, headed up by The Atlantic writer and former presidential speechwriter James Fallows, The Atlantic writer Deb Fallows, and composer Haskell Small.

“The negative impacts of these machines, especially on workers, should be our primary concern,” testified Catherine Plume, representing the D.C. chapter of the Sierra Club. She said that landscaping is an entry-level job, and many of the workers lack the employment security to demand protections from the blowers’ negative health impacts, including hearing loss and exhaust inhalation.

But Bob Mann, the director of state and local government relations at the Association of Landscape Professionals, said that the law would cripple the landscaping industry in D.C., because one employee with a gas-powered leaf blower is equal to two workers with manual tools. “There simply aren’t enough employees,” he said, though Cheh noted that workers would still be able to use leaf blowers powered by batteries.

Not all of the people in the landscaping business stood in opposition. Proponents included local business owners that have already started using battery-powered blowers.

“People have it in their head that if it’s noiser, it’s better and more powerful. But that’s simply not the case,” said witness Nancy Sainburg, the owner of The Enchanted Garden, a local landscaping company that stopped using gas-powered leaf blowers two years ago. Since then, she says her workers no longer have headaches and the switch has not affected their productivity.

Anne Cauman described herself as a “very irate homeowner” whose experience with the gas-powered leaf blowers has gotten worse as she hears them more and more often throughout the year.

“A few years ago it wasn’t so bad because they were mostly used in the fall,” she testified. “Either my neighbors all hired lawn companies or more lawn companies started using them year-round, and it made me absolutely crazy.”

D.C.’s current noise ordinance bans sound above 60 decibels from a distance of 50 feet in a residential area, but enforcement requires a District official to come and measure the noise each time. Cheh explained that this legislation’s outright ban of gas-powered blowers “really is the way to enforce the rules.”

Daniel Mustico, the vice president of government and market affairs at the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute, disagreed. Instead, he thought that “market-based solutions,” like educating workers about “safe and courteous use.”

Chuck Elkins, the vice-chair of ANC 3D and a member of Quiet Clean D.C., countered that there is a market-based solution—using battery-powered blowers.

“I want to assure you this is not just a Ward 3 problem,” said Elkins, pointing to resolutions passed at ANCs in seven of the city’s eight wards in favor of banning gas-powered blowers. “As you know, ANCs do not suffer fools.”

The final witness, DCRA Director Melinda M. Bolling, expressed concerns that the bill “poses several implementation challenges”: that DCRA inspectors would not be able to arrive in time to to catch those using gas-powered leaf blowers; that it would burden 311, DCRA, and the D.C. police; and it could cause tensions between homeowners and landscapers.

Cheh was not pleased with Bolling’s stance. “I reject, essentially, your testimony that expresses impotency in this area,” she said. “I would suggest that you all need to do your homework.”

This post has been updated to reflect that the group of neighbors who organized the ANC 3D resolution live in Wesley Heights, but do not organize under the name Concerned Wesley Heights Citizens.