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Westchester Considers Emissions Guides For Leaf-Blower Usage11-30-06 | News

Westchester Considers Emissions Guides For Leaf-Blower Usage

In an effort to clean the air people in Westchester breathe, a new law is being considered that calls for landscapers to upgrade their leaf blowers to more environmentally friendly versions.

Some residents are calling for the disturbing devices to be banned altogether, while landscapers argue that their clients demand clean driveways and patios, the culprit of all of the debate in Westchester County, N.Y. is leaf blowers. The legislature’s environment committee has been discussing the machines, and a proposal to force commercial landscapers and contractors to upgrade to more emissions-friendly leaf blowers over the next two years.

The law comes from County Executive Andrew Spano, and would require that companies licensed by the county to do “home improvement” certify that 50 percent of their machines meet a strict emissions standard by 2008 and all of the machines meet the standard by 2009.

Violations are punishable by a fine of $1,000 and the revocation or denial of the business’s license.

Mark Solomon of Red Cedar Arborists, a past president of the New York State Turf and Landscape Association, said the county should move to restrict which leaf blowers are sold in the area, rather than which are used. He also suggested a longer period of time to change over.

Frank DeBartolo, chief executive officer of Fradan manufacturing, a New Rochelle company that makes leaf blowers, said the federal government has already phased in requirements for cleaner leaf blowers, suggesting the county law may be unnecessary.

The county is proposing to cap exhaust at “45 rams per kilowatt-hour of hydrocarbons plus oxides of nitrogen,” while the federal government’s new standard, as of Jan. 1, will be 50 grams, noted committee Chairman Thomas Abinanti, D-Greenburgh.