Air Board Sets Exhaust Limits for Power Tools

In another sign that the battle against smog is expanding from freeways and factories to homes and back yard gardens, the state Air Resources Board on Friday unanimously approved unprecedented emission controls on gasoline lawn mowers, leaf blowers and a wide array of other home and garden tools.

Some manufacturers said implementation of the controls could drive them out of the state market, a point the ARB disputed.

By 1994, the new standards--which could ultimately force some manufacturers to turn to costly catalytic converters--will cut emissions by 46%. By 1999, the standards call for an overall reduction of 55%.

While gasoline lawn mowers, chain saws and leaf blowers would seem to have an inconsequential impact on smog, the ARB staff said many of the popular tools emit 50 times more pollution per horsepower than a typical truck engine.

Overall, they pump out as much smog-forming pollutants as 3.5 million 1991 cars driving an average of 16,000 miles a year, or about 5% of the total automotive emissions in California, the ARB said. Half of those emissions occur in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Professional gardeners and other commercial users of the equipment account for the bulk of the air pollution produced by the tools, exceeding by three to four times the emissions from home gardeners.

The new controls are expected to raise the price of a gasoline-powered lawn mower by $30 in 1994 and another $35 in 1999, the ARB staff said. Manufacturers, however, said the price increase would be at least double those figures.

With approval of the new standards, controls on other kinds of so-called “off-road” engines, including those used in construction equipment, are expected to follow. Since state and federal authorities have concentrated their most forceful air pollution reduction efforts on motor vehicles, off-road engines have escaped regulation until now.

In urging approval of the standards for home and garden tools Friday, ARB staff members pointedly referred to California’s continuing struggle to comply with federal clean air standards.

“California has the most severe air pollution problem in the United States,” an ARB staff report said in explaining why the time had come to slap controls on off-road engines.

James M. Lents, executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, applauded the ARB move to control off-road engines, calling it an “essential component of our overall strategy to clean up the air in the South Coast Air Basin.”

As was the case when California imposed the nation’s toughest tailpipe standards on cars, the new off-road engine standards are expected to have an impact far beyond the state because of the size of California’s market.

Manufacturers, for instance, will have to decide whether to build a “California lawn mower” for sale only in the state or retool their production lines to turn out a single product that meets California standards for sale everywhere.

Before Friday’s vote, some manufacturers warned that meeting the emission standards was impossible and could force them to withdraw from the state’s lucrative market. The ARB insisted manufacturers would be able to build the cleaner engines. ARB spokesman Bill Sessa said some motorcycle engines and European-produced chain saws already are equipped with smog-reducing catalysts.

But Jerry Stumbras, president of Lawn-Boy Inc., told the board that the restrictions would effectively ban the company’s lawn mowers and snow blowers.

“This would spell absolute disaster for Lawn-Boy,” he said. “If the regulations are adopted, Lawn-Boy’s California operations will be totally shut down.”

In a letter to the board, the Portable Power Equipment Manufacturers Assn. contended that California’s forest industry would “be brought to a virtual halt” if chain saws were included under the stringent new standards.

But a trade association of air pollution control device manufacturers disagreed. In a letter to the board, the Washington-based Manufacturers of Emissions Controls Assn. said the same catalytic converter technology developed for automobiles “can be used to help achieve significant emission reductions from utility lawn and garden engines.”

The group also said California’s regulations will spur the industry to improve catalytic converters and other controls needed to meet the standards.

In most cases, the ARB said manufacturers will be able to comply by improving the fuel efficiency of the engines.

Some manufacturers of larger equipment already have begun switching to engines with overhead valves, which improves engine efficiency.

Sessa said one fuel-efficient engine that already meets the standard burns 25% less gasoline.

Under the new ARB rule, engines are divided into two categories and different new standards apply to each. Combined, the standards result in the 55% reduction called for by 1999. A lawn and garden category includes walk-behind lawn mowers, riding mowers, lawn tractors, snow blowers, leaf blowers, chain saws, edge trimmers and tillers.

The second category, utility engines, includes the larger engines found in generators, compressors, pumps and portable refrigeration units.

In adopting the standards, the ARB was complying with a court order issued last February as a result of a lawsuit filed by Citizens for a Better Environment, an environmental group.

The court directed the ARB or the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to adopt the regulations by Jan. 7. In complying, however, the ARB went a step further by imposing the controls on a statewide basis.

“It’s clear we’re long overdue for this regulation,” said Julia May, a member of Citizens for a Better Environment.

Just two months ago, the ARB imposed the first emission controls statewide on 16 consumer products from hair sprays to household cleaners.

In a separate action, the AQMD also moved to force manufacturers of barbecue lighter fluids to reformulate products to reduce smog-forming emissions in Southern California. The barbecue industry filed suit to block the AQMD. The matter is pending in court.

The success of the AQMD’s plan to bring the four-county South Coast Air Basin into full compliance with all federal clean air standards by the year 2007 depends in part on a wide range of new restrictions on consumer products.

Stammer reported from Los Angeles and Hager from San Francisco.