Spurred By Unabated Leaf Blower Buzz, Survey Seeks A Quieter Quogue

The leaf blower racket was so extreme last summer, there were times when Sally Beatty couldn’t hold a conversation in her own yard in Quogue Village. Describing the village as “a very intimate community, a wonderful place,” Ms. Beatty said the landscaping noise last summer was so loud and so inescapable, there were certain hours of the day when one simply couldn’t be outdoors.

Reaching out to friends, Ms. Beatty learned many of her friends and acquaintances and many people living near her experience the same inexorable din.

Forming the Quieter Quogue Initiative with a core group including Steven Wilson, Linda Barnett, Tammy MacWilliams and Diana Vought, Ms. Beatty and her colleagues launched a survey to find out whether other village residents were also perturbed by the unrelenting cacophony of leaf blowers. Using the state’s Freedom of Information Law, the group filed a request for the village’s email list of residents and circulated a survey.

The survey asks simple questions such as whether residents’ landscapers use gas or electric leaf blowers. If they use gas blowers, the survey asks if emissions and noise are a concern. Support or opposition for the notion of a ban is another opinion sought.

Launched on February 8, the survey was slated to stay up for two weeks.

Soon after the survey was circulated, Mayor Peter Sartorius offered his opinion. He said he’d been approached over the years about enacting a ban on certain types of leaf blowers. Writing in an email to community members, he said, “My personal bottom line is that I do not favor such a law. I believe that noise caused by leaf blowers is a relatively high-class problem that adversely impacts mainly small businesses and their workers. Quogue is also relatively more spacious than most locations that have enacted bans. Enforcement would be difficult since people would have to be caught in the act, which I am sure would be frustrating to residents. In time, technology will improve the problem with quieter equipment and better batteries.”

The mayor provided additional comment he offered to a summer resident who’d asked about a ban last year: “Your task is to convince me and the other trustees that your ideas are good ones that should be enacted into law. A written presentation would be the first step. The more detail you provide the better. It is easy to say that people prefer less noise. Of course they do. How great is the reduction? What is the cost of limiting it? On whom does it fall? How do they manage that? What if they do business inside and outside of Quogue? How would the transition work? Does the equipment work adequately given the demands that would be placed on it. What does it cost compared to other equipment? It is easy to say the machines pollute. How much? What is the incremental impact in Quogue? Is it harmful? What steps have environmental regulatory agencies taken to control it? Should the Village of Quogue make judgments about pollution without any expertise?”

“Peter’s questions itemize a lot of things we need to address,” Ms. Beatty said, noting that the initiative members are also looking at how other towns and villages have tackled the issue.

East Hampton Village enacted a law in 2020 that bars professional landscapers from using the gas blowers entirely from June 1 to Labor Day, except following a major storm. Electric or battery-powered blowers may be used at any time.

Southampton Village’s restriction is much broader, barring the use of gas blowers from May 20 through September 20 and limiting their use to only certain hours of the day the rest of the year, and not at all on Sundays or federal holidays at any time of the year.

Southampton also limits the number of blowers landscapers may use at a time on a given property. The ban also applies to private homeowners, as well as professional landscapers.

Also on Long Island, the Town of North Hempstead passed regulations related to gas-powered leaf blowers in 2019. The Town of Huntington added gas-powered leaf blowers to its code relating to “noise disturbance.” With the exception of times designated as fall or spring cleanups, the tools may not be used for any longer than two hours per property on weekdays, and just one hour on weekends. The Town of Oyster Bay has had a noise ordinance regulating the use of leaf blowers since 1996.

East Hampton Town is currently considering its own gas-powered leaf blower ban.