Blower Use Down

Ordinance banning of the use gas-powered blower use is increasing across the county, and landscape professionals need to take note. Six months after the revised ordinance banning the use of leaf blowers within Santa Monica, California limits went into effect, the Office of Sustainability and the Environment has noted a major decrease in the number of reported violations, staff said.

According to a report released recently, leaf-blowing activity has stopped at more than 500 properties in Santa Monica, with over 600 other violators identified.

Calls to the Office of Sustainability and the Environment have dropped since OSE began its enforcement in October 2010, and monthly violations have dropped by 60 percent since December.

The noted successes have come as a result of better education, said Neal Shapiro, the watershed program coordinator at City Hall.

''We appear to be getting more compliance, and increasingly we're running into companies that are aware of the ordinance,'' Shapiro said.

The City Council approved changes to the ordinance on Sept. 13, 2010, which allowed OSE officials to hold property owners accountable, water customers, owners of gardening services and property managers responsible for offenses as well as the person holding the machine.

OSE officials patrol once or twice a week in 4-hour time slots during different parts of the day and in different parts of the city to watch out for offenders. They concentrate on places that have known gardening schedules or past history of leaf-blower violations.

They also take advantage of other street time, like water waste enforcement, to find violators, snap pictures of the violation and hand out warning letters to property owners or management companies.

OSE gives offenders several chances to get into compliance before going the extra step to give them the $250 citation.