7:30 pm tonight - First in PA: Join with Lower Merion to ban Gas Powered Leaf Blowers!

[Bill Sabey]

As Nancy mentions below, if you attend in person, wear green if possible.

To participate via zoom, contact the township by noon today.

Individuals wishing to participate virtually via Zoom should contact Jody Kelley, Township Secretary at (610) 645-6145 or public...@lowermerion.org before 12:00 p.m. on the day of the meeting. 

or 

The proceedings can be viewed live on LMTV, the Township’s government access channel, available on Comcast Cable Channel 7 and Verizon FiOS Channel 37 as well as online at https://lmtv.viebit.com/.

Board of Commissioners | Commissions and Boards Meetings | Lower Merion Township, PA   links to the agenda (which contains a link to the ordinance)

Bill

On Sunday, October 26, 2025 at 05:45:35 PM EDT, Nancy Winkler <econa...@gmail.com> wrote:

On October 22, the Lower Merion Board of Commissioners voted 10-4 to advertise for adoption an ordinance which would phase out the use of GPLB in the township by first enacting a seasonal Summer and Winter ban starting in June of 2026, and then an additional Spring ban in 2028, followed by a full ban in 2029.  This allows for an orderly transition period. 

Gas powered leaf blowers are highly polluting, emitting toxic carcinogens - 30% of the fuel is emitted into the air unburned.  The adverse human health impacts are well documented.  Their noise is on a low frequency.  The low frequency can travel through buildings and is quite different from and more adverse to human hearing than electric blowers.  You can learn more about the human health impacts in the links below. 

The Commissioners will vote on this ordinance on November 19 at their 7:30 meeting to formally adopt the ordinance.  We need all the support we can muster.  Climate Action Lower Merion and Quiet Clean Lower Merion are organizing residents turn-out for the November 19 meeting because we anticipate an aggressive attack on the ordinance from fossil fuel supported landscape interests who are spreading misleading information and claiming that the electric battery options they want are not commercially available and that if they are, they cost too much.  Quiet Clean LM has gathered facts and testimony from practical experiences of other municipalities and all electric landscapers which refutes their mis-information.   (By way of background, I have been working on this effort for over 5 years, first as a member of RF100 and Climate Action Lower Merion, then as a member of the LM EAC, where I drafted a 20 page report with over 80 references and currently as a member of Quiet Clean Lower Merion.) Here is a link to the ordinance as presented on October 22 - Here is a link to the October 22 Agenda - the staff report begins on page 34  

If adopted, this would be the first ordinance enacted in PA that has a fixed end date. Would you like to show your support for our initiative?  There are several possible ways to support us:

(1) Come to the meeting on November 19 (wear green if you can remember); 

(2) We want to have company - having other municipalities adopt a ban working with us will lift up all efforts!  Is your municipality or EAC working on a ban? Email me with information on the work that is being done in your municipality to ban GPLB; 

(3) Contact members of your EAC and ask them to start following this issue and bring a ban forward.  You can share the following resources with them.  

• Website for Quiet Clean Lower Merion
• Resource Center of The Quiet Clean Alliance

Key provisions of the ordinance are:

• Beginning June 1, 2026 and for every year thereafter, the use of gas powered leaf blowers shall be prohibited from June 1 to October 1 (“Summer”) and from January 1 to April 1 (“Winter”) each year. 
  
• Beginning January 1, 2028 and for every year thereafter, the use of gas powered leaf blowers shall be prohibited from January 1 to October 1 each year.
  
• Beginning January 1, 2029 and for every year thereafter, the use of gas powered leaf blowers shall be prohibited for the entire year.

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