Gas-Powered Leaf Blower Ban
EcoAction Arlington joined forces with Quiet Clean NOVA, Sierra Club Potomac River Group, and Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions to urge the County Board to revise its noise ordinance to ban gas-powered leaf blowers and to provide support for local landscape companies and homeowners to ease the transition to safer, cleaner alternatives. With the voice of our neighbors behind us in a letter-writing campaign
They’re not just annoying, gas-powered leaf blowers are harmful to people and the environment.
The noise, which exceeds levels permitted under Arlington’s noise ordinance, has been associated with numerous health impacts. Landscape workers are most affected, but anyone in close proximity, including inside their home, also suffers. In addition, the machines emit shockingly high amounts of greenhouse gas and other pollutants also damaging to health and the environment. Alternatives are readily available – quieter electric leaf blowers, an old-fashioned rake or broom, or just mulching and leaving leaves and other plant litter to decompose where they lie. Jurisdictions across the country have begun banning, including neighboring D.C., Montgomery County, and most recently Alexandria City.
EcoAction Arlington joined forces with Quiet Clean NOVA, Sierra Club Potomac River Group, and Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions in July 2025 to urge the Arlington County Board to revise its noise ordinance to ban gas-powered leaf blowers in 18 months and to provide support for local landscape companies and homeowners to ease the transition to safer, cleaner alternatives.
Update 07/18/2026: On July 18, 2026, the County Board voted to adopt an ordinance prohibiting the use of gas-powered leaf blowers and gas-powered leaf vacuums in Arlington County. The ordinance includes a 30-month transition period and will take effect on January 1, 2029. You can read more via the Arlington County Gas-Powered Leaf Blower Information page.
Thank you everyone who wrote letters, spoke at a county board meeting, and helped support this ban. Although, The 29-month phase-out period is longer than the 12-18 months we sought.
Gas-powered leaf blowers will be banned in Arlington starting in 2029, ARLnow 07/20/2026
Arlington’s ban on gas leaf blowers earns praise from Virginia environmentalists, ARLnow 07/29/2026
Update 07/15/2026: The Arlington County Board will vote on potential gas-powered leaf blower ban Saturday, July 18! Please consider speaking at the meeting–in-person or virtual comments are the most powerful way to sway Board members who may be on the fence. Short, personal statements are most effective — here are some more tips for speaking at a County Board meeting: https://www.ecoactionarlington.org/…/demystifying…/
Read the ARLnow article, Vote on potential gas-powered leaf blower ban scheduled for this weekend
Update 07/07/2026: The Arlington County Board will be voting on Saturday on the proposal to change the noise ordinance to ban gas-powered leaf blowers within 18 to 36 months. This is great news! But three years is too long to wait for relief given the very harmful impact of gas blowers on our environment and health–especially the most vulnerable (the elderly, children), and of course the workers who often have no voice regarding their work condition! Banning gas leaf blowers has already been under discussion for years.
Some landscapers say that shifting is too costly and that they need at least 36 months to transition. No two landscapers are the same in terms of their size, number of clients, type of service they offer, age of current equipment and so on. Some may indeed find it challenging to transition. But, given that the leaf blower issue has been under discussion with the Board for 5-6 years already, that DC banned the gas blowers four and a half years ago, Montgomery County banned them last year, and Alexandria will ban them in November, local landscapers will likely have already begun to transition. They begin to save immediately as the cost of electricity (at some 16 cents per kilowatt hour in Arlington) is far less than the cost of gas and oil to run a gas leaf blower for an hour (typically about a half gallon of gas for an hour). Arlingtonians should not be held hostage to some landscapers unable or unwilling to figure out their transition.
Update 06/09/2026: We’re in the final stage of getting Arlington to pass a ban on gas-powered leaf blowers, which has strong community support. On Saturday, June 13 the County Board will consider a request to advertise (RTA) an ordinance to ban gas-powered leaf blowers but with a phase-in period of three years–way too long. The wording of the RTA matters! It must include the option of a shorter phase-in of 12-18 months or wlse that option will be “off the table” when the Board adopts the final ordinance in July. Now is the time to let them know that you want Arlington to quickly align with neighboring jurisdictions–Montgomery County, D.C. and the City of Alexandria — by including a shorter transition period in the RTA itself.
Showing up at the Board meeting and letting the County Board know you want a ban with a shorter phase will send a strong message of community support. Please plan to attend in-person if you can or virtually to make your voice heard. There’s also still time to send our latest letter, if you haven’t done so.
Update 05/06/2026: Thanks to strong support from community members like you, Arlington County is preparing to adjust its noise ordinance to ban the use of gas-powered leaf blowers within the next few months.
This is great news but the current proposal calls for a phase in period of 3 years, unnecessarily long given that neighboring Montgomery County and the District of Columbia already have bans in place and the City of Alexandria’s ban will go into effect this November. Please send a letter asking the County Board to adopt this ordinance with a phase in of 12 months from adoption.
Update 01/30/2026:
Support Legislation to Ban Gas-Powered Leaf Blowers
Arlingtonians have already made clear to County officials their support for phasing out noisy, polluting gas-powered leaf blowers. Now two bills are making their way through the Virginia General Assembly that would give localities in dense urban and suburban areas the ability to ban or regulate the use of gas-powered leaf blowers after a minimum transition period of at least 12 months.
Update 10/01/2025: Arlington County, responding to strong public pressure, is considering updating its noise ordinance to ban gas-powered leaf blowers – a serious noise, worker health, public health, climate, and environmental concern in Arlington. Many local jurisdictions, including the City of Alexandria, have already moved to ban them. You can show your support by providing online feedback to Arlington supporting the ban and a phase-in of no more than 18 months
Update 09/17/2025: Article from ARLnow , County Board considers ban on gas-powered leaf blowers in Arlington
07/15/2025: Send A Letter To The Arlington County Board
EcoAction Arlington has joined forces with Quiet Clean NOVA, Sierra Club Potomac River Group, and Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions to urge the County Board to revise its noise ordinance to ban gas-powered leaf blowers within 18 months and to provide support for local landscape companies and homeowners to ease the transition to safer, cleaner alternatives.
Thank you for being a voice for our environment, EcoAction Advocacy Committee. Your letters have made it clear to the Arlington County Board that this is a priority issue.
You can support our efforts by sending your own letter to the county board.
06/27/2025: EcoAction Arlington jointly with Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions and The Sierra Club – Potomac River Group sent their comments to Arlington County Board on June 27, 2025 requesting that gas-powered leaf blowers be banned in Arlington by the end of 2025.
Moving Forward with a Gas-Powered Leaf Blower Ban: Letter to the Arlington County Board
June 27, 2025
RE: Moving Forward with a Gas-Powered Leaf Blower Ban
The Honorable Takis Karantonis Chair, Arlington County Board
2100 Clarendon Boulevard, Suite 300 Arlington, VA 22201
Dear Chair Karantonis and members of the County Board:
Sierra Club’s Potomac River Group, EcoAction Arlington, and Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions Arlington Hub request that you work with staff and stakeholders to approve, by the end of 2025 if possible, a gas-powered leaf blower ban similar to the one recently passed by the City of Alexandria. We stand ready to assist, as needed, with research, public education and more.
Scores of other jurisdictions already have successfully banned gas-powered leaf blowers (GLBs). The long list includes many local peers, including, in addition to Alexandria, Washington, DC, Montgomery County, Takoma Park, Chevy Chase, and Annapolis.i
GLBs have long been a serious noise, worker health, public health, climate change and environmental concern in Arlington. Arlington’s authority to regulate noise is undisputed and the uniquely harmful nature of GLB noise is now well-documented. We believe it is time to protect all Arlingtonians, including landscape workers, who are most exposed to these harmful impacts.
Noise from GLBs is more than a nuisance. It is a serious form of pollution that damages human health and well-being. ii The volume, or decibel level, of GLBs is uniformly higher than allowed by the Arlington County noise ordinance in residential neighborhoods. iii While that is reason enough to prohibit their use, GLBs also emit noise at a lower frequency than electric leaf blowers. GLB noise carries farther and penetrates buildings more readily, creating much more harm than the volume alone might suggest. iv
People subjected to excessive noise have higher stress hormones and higher blood pressure. The literature shows a clear association between noise levels and aggression, conflict and other serious mental health impacts. v GLB noise regularly disrupts the sleep of children, shift workers, the elderly and others who require daytime sleep.
Scores of localities have banned GLBs based on noise pollution alone.vi However due to their primitive 2-stroke engine design, GLBs emit shockingly high amounts of carbon and other environmental pollutants that harm public health and add to our climate change challenges:
• The California Air Resources Board calculated that using a leaf blower for 1 hour “emits smog-forming pollution comparable to driving a new light-duty passenger car about 1,100 miles – about the distance from Los Angeles to Denver.” vii
• The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai reports that “GLB emissions include carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, benzene, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, and particulate matter. In addition to impacting respiratory health and increasing asthma risk and severity, these pollutants are associated with numerous health outcomes, including autism, cancer, heart disease, and dementia.” viii
Despite the harms caused by GLBs the County’s past legal interpretation held that Arlington was powerless to act due to a legal Catch-22: It was thought to be only permissible under state law to enforce the noise ordinance using decibel readings on a case-by-case basis, but it was not possible to do so in practice due to challenging evidentiary requirements.
This “Catch-22” was addressed in an Opinion Letter issued by Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares in August 2024 to the City of Alexandria. ix The Attorney General pointed out that under Virginia law, when jurisdictions are granted authority to act (e.g., to enforce a noise ordinance) without specific direction regarding the method of implementation, the local government will be upheld “as long as the method selected is reasonable.” x The Attorney General went on to find that it would be reasonable for Alexandria to “amend its noise control ordinances to prohibit the use of gas-powered leaf blowers while continuing to allow the use of electric-powered leaf blowers.” xi The Attorney General’s letter, and the precedent set by Alexandria, opens the door for Arlington to move forward. The facts and relevant legal authority in Arlington and Alexandria are virtually identical, and the reasoning of the Opinion Letter is broad.
We consider Alexandria’s 18-month phase in period reasonable and support additional efforts to ease the transition for local landscaping companies and homeowners through outreach, training and rebate programs. We understand that electric leaf blowers cost more up-front than GLBs. However, shifting to electric leaf blowers becomes cash-positive quickly as savings in fuel and maintenance add up. Montgomery County estimates that the return on investment in our region turns positive in 2.5 to 3 years.xii
We look forward to discussing these issues in greater detail at any time.
Sincerely,
Elenor Hodges Executive Director, EcoAction Arlington
Julie Rosenberg Leader, Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions, Arlington Hub
Dean Amel Chair, Sierra Club – Potomac River Group
cc: Mark Schwartz, County Manager Jennifer Fioretti, Assistant County Manager for Climate Policy Jason Papacosma, Chief, Office of Sustainability and Environmental Management
ENDNOTES:
i “Interactive Map of Lawn Mower and Leaf Blower Policies,” U.S. PIRG Education Fund, updated as of June 2025, available at https://pirg.org/edfund/resources/interactive-map-of-lawn-mower-and-leaf-blower-policies/.
ii See, e.g., “Gas Leaf Blowers are Health Hazards,” Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Institute for Exposomic Research, July 22, 2024, available at https://mountsinaiexposomics.org/gas-leaf-blowers-are-healthhazards/.
iii The Noise Control Ordinance of Arlington County, Chapter 15 of the County Code, establishes 60 decibels as the maximum continuous noise permitted in residential areas during daytime (Table 1). We are not aware of any GLB model rated by its manufacturer at or below 60 decibels.
iv See, e.g., Erica Walker and Jamie L. Banks, “Characteristics of Lawn and Garden Equipment Sound: A Community Pilot Study,” Journal of Environmental and Toxicological Studies, 2017, available at https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6707732/.
v See, e.g., Lisa Goines, RN, Louis Hagler, MD, “Noise Pollution: A Modern Plague,” Southern Medical Journal, March, 2007, available at https://sma.org/southern-medical-journal/article/noise-pollution-a-modern-plague/.
vi “Interactive Map of Lawn Mower and Leaf Blower Policies,” U.S. PIRG Education Fund, updated as of June 2025, available at https://pirg.org/edfund/resources/interactive-map-of-lawn-mower-and-leaf-blower-policies/.
vii California Air Resources Board, “Small Engine Fact Sheet,” December 15, 2021, available at: https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/fact-sheets/sore-small-engine-fact-sheet
viii Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Institute for Exposomic Research, “Gas Leaf Blowers are Health Hazards,” July 22, 2024, available at: https://mountsinaiexposomics.org/gas-leaf-blowers-are-health-hazards/
ix Office of the Attorney General, Official Opinions, Opinion #24-018, August 12, 2024 (“Miyares Letter”), available at https://oag.state.va.us.
x Miyares Letter, p. 2.
xi Miyares Letter, p. 3.
xii Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection, “Electric vs. Gas-powered Leaf Blowers: Myths and Facts,” available at https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/DEP/property-care/leaf-blowers/electric-leafblowers.html