Leaf blowers spark debate at meeting

Several residents showed up at the Chapel Hill Town Council meeting Monday night to sound off on a proposed ban on the operation of leaf blowers within town limits.

Council member Cam Hill, who first suggested the ban when he made an unsuccessful bid for mayor in 2001, was the impetus behind the proposal - and his ideas drew arguments from both sides.

Diana Steele of Mason Farm Road said Monday that she has walked the streets of Chapel Hill for 50 to 60 years, and that only recently has she begun to find those walks unpleasant.

"I love walking here, but not so much anymore because it is getting noisier and noisier," she said.

"Leaf blowers are illogical, especially when eight lawn maintenance workers at the University are chasing one leaf around."

But Ken Robinson, an employee of Williams Landscape Services Inc., said Hill's accusation that leaf blowers emit a high amount of carbon dioxide is false. He also pointed out that banning leaf blowers could have unintended consequences.

"Grass will die if we ban leaf blowers. Twenty percent of the Chapel Hill turf will die off, and that equates to 10 million square feet of turf," Robinson said. "The turf that would die off produces oxygen for 16,000 people per day."

Council member Edith Wiggins also commented on the proposal's effects. "I think this is an interesting discussion for a community that loves its trees," Wiggins said.

"The leaves have to be managed before they end up in the storm water."

Hill's research comes from a study performed by Citizens for a Quieter Sacramento, a group that worked to ban leaf blowers in California's capital. The study found that leaf blower motors emit a large amount of ozone gasses.

In addition, Sacramento's acceptable noise level in residential areas is no more than 60 decibels, and most blowers exceed that limit by 10 decibels.

More than 70 communities nationwide have banned leaf blowers.

"The tool is noisy," Hill said. "It's a simple issue."

Ron Holdway, director of the Orange County Environmental Health Services Division, said the region has been placed under nonattainment status by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA designation means that on any given day, Chapel Hill could have air quality problems.

But he added that leaf blowers are not significant polluters.

"The dust and debris could affect anyone in the immediate area or anyone sensitive to dust or debris," Holdway said. "But it wouldn't be that much more of a problem than the wind on a dry day."

Hill said that his proposal still would make a difference.

"There are greater polluters than leaf blowers, but I can't ask people to stop driving cars."

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