Pastor Hopes Leaf Blowers Bite the Dust

They help keep homes beautiful, blasting plant debris away so lawns look perfectly trimmed. They also create an unholy ruckus and make people cough and squint in clouds of dust.

The leaf blower, that noisy modern gardening tool, has run into stiff opposition in this working-class city. A church pastor has launched a movement against them, saying the machines plague asthmatics and emit ear-splitting noise.

Gas-powered leaf blowers--garden-variety for landscapers--should be banned altogether, argues Pastor Jim Bain of First Presbyterian Church.

“It’s almost like a chain saw. It’s an obnoxious noise,” Bain said. “And the dust and bacteria being blown into the air seems unneighborly. I thought Oxnard should join this movement toward a better quality of life, just like banning second-hand smoke.”

Bain wants to stop the noise, and he has collected about 65 signatures on an anti-leaf blower petition circulated after Sunday services.

Responding to Bain’s complaints, Oxnard City Council members on Tuesday will discuss restricting the use of leaf blowers. The options range from an outright ban to regulating the times they can be used.

Landscapers worry that a crackdown on leaf blowers would make them go back to using rakes and brooms to clear clippings and leaves. That would be more time-consuming and cause them to increase prices for working longer hours, they argue.

“It’s a tool of the trade, just like a computer for an office worker,” said Dan Manzer, a Saticoy-based landscaper whose company has worked at Bain’s church.

“What they’re trying to do is take our tools away from us,” Manzer added. “We’re really getting blasted on this.”

Oxnard’s discussion of leaf blowers comes at a time when cities throughout California are trying to deal with the landscaping tool’s health and noise effects. The Oxnard City Council’s look into leaf blowers, in fact, will fall on the same day that Los Angeles’ controversial new leaf-blower law takes effect.

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In Los Angeles, the use of gasoline-powered leaf blowers has been banned within 500 feet of a residence. Residents there have complained that leaf blower exhaust contributes to smog, and that the blowers stir up aggravating dust particles. Violators can now be fined up to $1,000 and serve six months of jail time.

Locally, officials in Camarillo enacted a law in 1986 prohibiting the use of weed and debris blowers between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. In Ventura, the code department uses existing public nuisance ordinances to deal with leaf-blower noise. Statewide, more than 40 cities have addressed the leaf-blower issue.

In Thousand Oaks, officials in 1990 passed an ordinance banning the use of power equipment that makes “a loud, raucous or impulsive sound” between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m.

Oxnard has no laws to deal directly with leaf blowers, and existing noise ordinances require lengthy steps such as noise testing to prove a violation. A city report states that council members could take any number of steps.

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They could ban them altogether, as the city of Del Mar has done. They could restrict their use to certain hours of the day, a solution reached in Pasadena. Or, the city’s code department could more rigorously enforce its existing sound ordinance.

In any event, the report states, leaf blowers cause problems. The average one emits about 71 decibels, equivalent to that of normal automobile traffic.

They also pollute. The Oxnard report cites a University of Michigan study that says weed whips, lawn mowers and leaf blowers cause about 5% of all air pollution.

But a solution to the leaf blower problem would have financial impacts on both landscapers and residents.

Councilman Dean Maulhardt said he hoped to hear from landscapers at next week’s meeting. “I hate to over-regulate,” Maulhardt said, noting that he closes the windows when gardeners work outside his office. “I would hope we could do this in a volunteer way.”

Taxpayers would certainly be affected by a leaf-blower ban, Councilman John Zaragoza said.

“It’s going to affect the livelihood of a lot of folks,” Zaragoza said. “The parks department has blowers, and it would mean increased labor costs for the city.”

Bain said he is motivated by the health problems that an elderly neighbor suffered because of leaf blowers. He said the neighbor’s asthmatic coughing fits were made worse by landscapers.

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Gardeners could do their jobs with electric- or battery-powered leaf blowers, Bain argues. The goggles and ear plugs they wear are proof that gas-powered leaf blowers are no good, he maintains. But Manzer, the landscaper, said those kinds of leaf blowers aren’t as powerful, and the electric ones cut down on workers’ mobility.

“I think he should be as concerned with the livelihood of his parishioners,” Manzer said of Bain. “His neighbor has trouble breathing? Well, his neighbor should just go inside. The guy running the leaf blower isn’t chasing him around with it and blowing it in his face.”

Replied Bain: “Steel mills, cigarette makers have all had to clean up their act. Now gardeners will have to go along with a few more restrictions.”

Times correspondents Nick Green, Dawn Hobbs and David Greenberg contributed to this story.