To the editor:

For 35 years I have been a resident of Old Town and during this time, our sleepy old place has become ever more vibrant and populated; however, now, our living quality here is under attack by one machine causing extreme noise and pollution affecting all of us – the gas leaf blower.

We live in a community of small yards and close neighbors. The kind, healthy, neighborly act of raking and sweeping these patches of land have been replaced by a truck load of workers who put toxic tanks on their backs to the detriment of their own, uninsured health in order to move pretty, light leaves into oblivion. Leaves are not litter. They turn into fine black soil. They house and feed tiny ecosystems that support other lives like birds and bees.

The GLB affects the quality of life outside and inside your homes and offices because its high decibel uniquely toxic noise penetrates walls and windows. They break the regulated decibel level of our noise ordinance, which is 65. Holding a conversation outside is nearly impossible when there are multiple leaf blowers and that is often. The in-air is a pollutant and the output a carcinogen. The GLB is a public health problem and public nuisance.

Reasons given for their continued use from landscapers is about the efficiency of these over anything else. Really? I watch how often the poor guy with the GLB walks around blowing at precious blossoms in the spring, the air, car, sticks and stones because most of the time there is nothing to blow. Loud noise does not mean hard work. I will compete with any GLB with my broom to clean off a sidewalk any day. When and why did nature become something so disturbing we have to blow at it so violently? Even birds are unable to communicate. Why should our hearing, health, enjoyment of the outdoors, fresh air, children playing outside, dogs walking and our mental health pay the price for this “efficiency?” We should not live like this and it needs to stop.

QuietCleanNOVA and QuietCleanAlexandria have been bringing our case to City Council for years to find a way to regulate this unnecessary menace. Replacing with quieter tools such as electric blowers, rakes and brooms is the answer. Fining landscapers is another. Curtailing where they can be used another.

While there is much agreement from most members that they too want to stop the noise, our Council has not attacked this problem because they believe they cannot. So, we went to work in Richmond to make changes to the Dillon rule to allow Virginia localities to regulate GLB. Bills were sponsored and made it out of both chambers but failed to pass the general vote. We were told by some lawmakers to bring it back to our city as our noise ordinance can deal with this problem.

While we have some sympathetic support from Alexandria lawmakers, there are two people running for office who say we will find a way to get this done: Alyia Gaskins and James Lewis. If you care about this serious issue, vote for Jim and Alyia. Meantime, hold your landscapers to quiet safe options for yourself and the rest of us.

-Susan Davis,

QuietCleanNOVA, Alexandria