Morning mowing bans!!!!

[BIG D]

Hey Texans, I read in the January 2001 issue of Landscape Management (page 16)that you are not going to be allowed to mow between the times of 6am to noon because of pollution problems. I realize it only applies to Houston/Galveston areas and won't become official till 2005 but, this is serious. It's also strange that homeowners were excluded from this ban. Is there mower not polluting? Why dont they make these semi trucks park until noon they can work at night. The facts are that as soon as one city does it another city will do it. How much will this affect your business? I'm sure a lot. I would think you in Texas especially would want to start early because of how hot it is. Is your governor Democrat? Man this country is going very socialistic. Please Texans fight this off. I hope manufactures get there foot in on this also. They are making things so efficient now it they hardly put out any emmissions. The most pollution comes from the dust the equipment kicks up. Can you mow guys believe you might have to mow between noon and 8pm? If you have families prepare for some hard times. Good luck Texas Landscapers.

[HOMER]

I read that as well and thought how foolish are these people becoming. One wore out raggedy a$$ car passing by will emit more pollution than the trimmers and other equipment I would use all day. Thats what they need to be policing is ol' smokers that need to be junked or fixed. I just hope Alabama doesn't try to enact those strange laws. I read where the industry folks are going to step up to the plate and try to put a stop to it. I hope they have very large numbers to get the point across.

Good luck Texas

[awm]

JUST ONE MORE CONTROL.EVERYBODY GONNA GET HIT AT
HOME SOONER OR LATER

[LoneStarLawn]

That is a federal law not a Texas state law...Our former Governor you are refering to was just elected President and no he is not a democrat..lol. There are many other cities in the US that are being threaten with this regulation.

[CCLC]

I read that article yesterday. I can't believe what the proposal is. I hope that it is not something that becomes more widespread into other metro areas.

[powerreel]

http://www.lawnsite.com/showthread.php?threadid=8780

[Paradise Yard Service]

Wow thats baaaad news!
In Hawaii we don't need catalytic converters (although most cars have them)trade winds blow out all air pollution. Great if your a hot-rodder!
My competition starts at 7am, no mercy. I give the clients a break on the noise and wait till 8:30am. As for small engine pollution not an issue. Its a great place for the business. If there are any laws on small engine pollution for Hawaii I don't know of any, and probably would'nt be enforced anyway. Thanks for the heads up on Texas. Guess I won't be moving there anytime soon (although my folks live there).
Aloha, P.Y.S.

[hortusa]

Around me they placed a blower ban from April till Sept in certain towns.We now must sweep up the clippings which is taken us alot longer.However I was watching a crew one day in August, the owner was some old guy with 4 workers, all of his equipment was shot i mean he must have bought this stuff in 1988 anyway they came mowed the lawn and 3 of his guys came bursting out with these blowers at full throttle that i swear they were the loudest things I heard just to blow away grass. If he had new blowers and just left them idle it would of did the same job 100 times quieter.To rid our selves of more regulations we must start with ourselves

[LoneStarLawn]

Just to make a statement....The ban does not effect Texas, but the city of Houston, Texas and the Galaveston area. The reason being that it is one of most polluted cities in USA and has the highest problem with ozone. The rest of Texas is well safe.

[TurfGuyTX]

Just to make a statement....The ban does not effect Texas, but the city of Houston, Texas and the Galaveston area. The reason being that it is one of most polluted cities in USA and has the highest problem with ozone. The rest of Texas is well safe.

Well spoken.....

[Steve9]

Just to make a statement....The ban does not effect Texas, but the city of Houston, Texas and the Galaveston area. The reason being that it is one of most polluted cities in USA and has the highest problem with ozone. The rest of Texas is well safe.

Yeah and a lot of thier problem is blowing pollution up from Mexico! I dont know about the rest of us being safe becasue Dallas/Fort Worth isnt much better than Houston.

[YardPro]

pretty soon we will all have to go with propane powered units.

[ed2hess]

pretty soon we will all have to go with propane powered units.
You are correct about this...in our area school mowers are converted and the local dealer is working on geting some comversion hardwarel. He already sell propane. We think that will be the only way to avoid being shut down on smog alert days, in the future. There is also a LOT of discussion about get rid of back pack blowers, only hand helds would be allowed.

[beransfixitinc]

How do these almost 4 year old posts get revived like this?

[DSIM]

The backpacks make less noise than a lot of handhelds. Have you ever heard those Sears Crapsman handhelds? Those things put out some serious decibels!

I hope this ban never makes it to my area. I guess I will be an outlaw if it does.

[mtdman]

Personally, I think if anyone ever creates a good electric powered set of equipment, I would be able to make a fortune by being the environmentally safe lawn care guy around here. This town would eat that up.

[beransfixitinc]

Personally, I think if anyone ever creates a good electric powered set of equipment, I would be able to make a fortune by being the environmentally safe lawn care guy around here. This town would eat that up.


And how would you power them? Even if you have a generator on your truck that you power things off of, it's still releasing polution into the air. Unless of course it was a propane generator. You'd probably go crazy pulling extension cords all over the place though.

[YardPro]

And how would you power them? Even if you have a generator on your truck that you power things off of, it's still releasing polution into the air. Unless of course it was a propane generator. You'd probably go crazy pulling extension cords all over the place though.


people don't realize that electric power is NOT clean power.
the generators that make electricity are BIG polluters.
and what happens when we keep adding more and more electricity using devices to an already stressed power grid.

remember the electricity shortages in Ca?? let's plug in 1million mowers for recharge.........

[mtdman]

And how would you power them? Even if you have a generator on your truck that you power things off of, it's still releasing polution into the air. Unless of course it was a propane generator. You'd probably go crazy pulling extension cords all over the place though.

I dunno. I didn't say they would be better, I said that the people would jump all over that idea here, thinking that electric is better than gas powered equipment. You would be suprised to see how many hippies around here mow their lawns with a mechanical push mower, and how much crap people give me about pollution.

I would be interested to know if a charging system with an alternator that charged batteries as you moved could be created and run off the motion of the wheels on a trailer. If I understand right, often times 5th wheels have secondary alternators to charge the batteries for the 5th wheels.

[J.Gordon]

If everyone triples his or her price for lawn care I bet it would stop that little law!



Personally, I think if anyone ever creates a good electric powered set of equipment, I would be able to make a fortune by being the environmentally safe lawn care guy around here. This town would eat that up.


What gets me is everyone presumes electricity is clean which it is. Its just the coal fired plants that make the little electrons are not! But most people would just see a lawn mower that doesn’t smoke or make noise and think you are saving the environment because of your $25,000 lawn mower, which in fact probably is worse than the gasser because of how the electricity is made in the first place! Now if all the electricity were produce by wind, solar or hydraulics it would be a different story.

[tiru]

I met a guy rode a bike with a trailer. He used battery powered mowers with several extra batterys. His plan was to eventually use solar battery chargers. All the yard waste was recycled. I myself have plans for something like this only using a 4wheel pedal electric with a momentum generator and solar power. I would like to get this off the ground and on the grass soon. Please send comments and cash.

[The Dude]

How do these almost 4 year old posts get revived like this?

Because TurfGuyTx is trying to increase his post count. Look at some of the other old stuff he is bringing up.

This isnt a bad post to bring back up to the top however, because the ban was set to start up this year. I think it is the most assanine thing I have ever heard of. Do things not pollute in the pm hours?

[The Captain]

Back in 'The Old Days', when the EPA was founded and the 'Clean Air Act' passed, everyone thought we would get the oil burners off the road. Boy were we wrong. There are so many loop holes in the law it's pathetic. But, it does open a lot of 'jobs' (do nothing) for the pencil pushers and political cronies that sap and suck up our tax money. These so called solutions (bans/restrictions) that the politic ans keep coming up with, would not be needed if they addressed the basic problems that we had forty years ago. That wouldn't be profitable for them though.

Keep your equipment tuned and maintained, use some common sense, fire 99% of the so called "Public Servants" and as Shakespeare said, "Hang all the lawyers'.

Just my nickles worth on a cold, snowy night in the mid-west.....

Stay warm and be careful

[jgtxusa]

Bans are not only causing problems in the Houston area. Arlington, TX bans mowing until 10A on "Red, Purple" days. The enforcement was not too harsh last year and does not apply to diesel mowers. A city man told me they will crack down on it harder this year on engines up to 85hp, so that might be tough. My Arlington crews run the office complexes and a few HOAs at 6A. I hate to hear that, but it may be in the future for more of DFW.

[outrunjason]

This doesn't really have to do with pollution but I have a few lawns in a neighborhood here in Dallas and they sent us a letter and said that we could not mow before 9:00 because of a noice ordinance that the Neighborhood watch has. I dropped all 3 of those lawns. I don't have time for that crap.

I so hope they don't put a ban like that on us here. Or I just might be breaking out with 4 guys and mowing and going fast. Pay the small fine later I guess.

Jason

[Richard Martin]

What gets me is everyone presumes electricity is clean which it is. Its just the coal fired plants that make the little electrons are not!

This is the truth. We have some bad, bad air here and over 50% of it comes from coal fired plants in the Ohio Valley. While we do have a few coal plants the majority of our electricity comes from hydro and nuclear plants.