FresnoBee.com News Blog: Air district offers commercial gardeners ...

Any gardeners out there looking for a quieter, air-friendly leaf blower? The local air-quality police are offering you quite a freebie. And it's not just for leaf blowers. Commercial gardeners can get electric tools, such as blowers, mowers and trimmers, from the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District this year. It's a $500,000, one-year experiment to see how the tools stand up in daily use. It may not sound like a major campaign, but the district's experiment is a response to a big hassle in many neighborhoods. Many residents don't like gasoline-powered leaf blowers, which are loud and dirty, though they are not a major villain in the Valley's nationally known air problems. Many opponents think they should be banned. Electric leaf blowers cut out the ozone-making gases, oxides of nitrogen and volatile organic compounds, as well as tuning down the noise. Tiny particle pollution from leaf blowers would still be an issue but there are practices that can make it less of an air-quality problem. For instance, workers could avoid leaf-blower use around schools when children are outside or in the area. The district has $500,000 to buy electric lawnmowers, edgers, trimmers, bush cutters, blowers and chainsaws. These zero-emission tools are not widely used in the commercial gardening business, say air district leaders. Any commercial gardener can apply here. Or call (559) 230-5800. The category includes private gardening businesses, public agencies, school districts and hospitals within the eight-county boundaries of the district, which range from Stockton to Bakersfield. Environmentalists and some residents have long complained that leaf blowers are loud, dirty and a low priority for air-quality cleanup in the Valley.

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