Neighbors get creative with electric lawn care

The campaign to make Curtis Park residents aware of harmful pollutants spewing from gas mowers and leaf blowers has people listening. Increasingly, neighbors are finding creative ways to minimize the use of gas-powered equipment and turn to quieter, less polluting electric lawn care.

“This is science,” emphasizes Nury Eno of Sixth Avenue. “People are really motivated to make the switch when they learn how much pollution is generated even on their own property.”

Eno, a strong advocate for clean and quiet lawn care, has been an active participant on the SCNA ad hoc committee to help educate neighbors about pollution from gas equipment.

Her neighbor Zachary Knight didn’t want to lose his existing gardener so he invested in an electric leaf blower he keeps charged and ready for weekly use. For less than $150, he was able to purchase a high-quality blower, battery and charger. Both he and his gardener find it gets the job done just as well as the gas blower.

Knight credits Eno for helping him and his wife, parents of a 3½-year-old son, understand how the small particulate matter mobilized by gas blowers and equipment is especially harmful to children. Gas lawn equipment emits other air pollutants, including carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons (greenhouse gases) and other smog-forming chemicals such as nitrogen oxide.

“As a homeowner, it should be my responsibility to be sure safe equipment is being used,” Knight said.

On Portola Way, Jennifer Albion asked her gardener to not use a blower on her yard. “I notice a huge difference in noise reduction and less dust,” she said. “Both are appreciated with a young one in the house.”

On 25th Street, neighbors Joan Muttera and Lynda White shared the same gardener for the last few years but recently switched to all-electric service.

“I’m so much more aware now how noisy gas mowers and blowers are when I walk around the neighborhood,” Muttera said. Her new electric service is only $20 more per month than she paid previously, which she considers a fair tradeoff.

Her neighbor Lynda White, a retired nurse who fitted patients in hazardous jobs with respirators, is especially aware of damage to lungs from gas fumes.

“I didn’t want to breathe the fumes from gas care any longer,” she said. When offered the name of an electric service, she was all for it. “The noise from my old service was irritating, but the fumes were worse.”

For information on the noise and toxic pollution from gas lawn care, visit https://sierra2.org/ neighborhood-scna/advocacy/clean-quiet-yard/.

The Clean and Quiet Yard Care Committee welcomes new members or inquiries about how to pursue electric service. Contact Kathy.les321@gmail.com.

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