Thanks to hard work and terrific advocacy by our supporters over the past 5 years, and to persistent efforts by Commissioner Rubio and County Chair Vega Pederson, we are pleased to report that the City—with County input—has prepared an initial ordinance to phase out gas powered leaf blowers in Portland.
Please help us phase out gas powered leaf blowers by submitting a public comment before January 31st and spreading the word to your community!
We appreciate that the City has taken this step, and that the county has offered to support the ordinance with enforcement and incentives for small businesses to reduce the costs of transitioning to battery electric equipment. But the draft is much weaker than we’d like. We want to use this window of opportunity to make it stronger.
The current draft ordinance would:
- Prohibit the use of gas leaf blowers between January 1 and September 30, beginning January 1, 2026.
- Prohibit the use of gas leaf blowers all year long beginning January 1, 2028.
- Fine property owners $250 upon a third violation and $500 for subsequent violations.
- Emphasize education and outreach for the initial phases of implementation.
We are asking the city to make the ordinance stronger:
- Start the implementation in 2025 not 2026 – we should not wait nearly 2 years before this becomes effective since the equipment is available and effective now.
- Shorten the seasonal exemption window to 2 months rather than 3 – wet leaf season is not 3 months long – the city’s wet leaf pickup service does not begin til mid November.
- Begin the year round prohibition sooner – 2028 is way too long to wait.
- Ensure the necessary enforcement to make this ordinance effective by including the ability to fine contractors and property managers in addition to property owners for repeat violations.
Please help us support the ordinance and help get the word out so we can flood the city with comments of support.
Gas powered leaf blowers are not just a nuisance!
- They create extreme levels of noise that can cause permanent hearing loss (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) and disrupt schools, businesses and our neighborhoods.
- Just 1 hour of operating a gas leaf blower creates more air pollution than driving a car for 1,100 miles. (California Air Resources Board)
- Leaf blowers and other lawn and garden equipment produces over 80,000 lbs of smog forming pollutants on a summer day in the Portland-Vancouver area. (Oregon DEQ)
- Operating and maintaining a gas blower produces a consistent stream of toxic solid waste from used air filters, gas filters, spark plugs, oil cans and gasoline spills.
- The exposure to noise, air pollution and toxic waste is particularly dangerous to the low wage workers using this equipment.
- Transitioning to electric equipment would avoid all of these dangers.
We urgently need your help in getting the word out while the public comment period is open until January 31!
We kindly ask that you support this effort in the following ways:
- Send a link to this Call to Action to your mailing lists.
- Submit a comment on behalf of yourself, your organization or business