Fort Collins Now
July 2008
Who mows your lawn? Is it the neighborhood kid down the street? A commercial lawn-care company? A seasonal small business? Do you mow your own lawn?
Did you know that your lawn care contributes to our ozone problem? That’s right, Fort Collins has an ozone “problem.” It seems that our ozone levels now exceed federal “attainment” standards. Of course, that’s not because our air quality has gotten drastically worse all of a sudden. Rather, it turns out that the EPA simply changed their standards last fall. With a stroke of a pen, we’re now classified as being in “non-attainment” of the new standards. (If it makes you feel any better, the entire state of Delaware is also in “non-attainment.”)
Hence, the “problem.” Or, to be more direct, never, ever underestimate the lengths bureaucrats will go to reassure us of their relevancy and thus preserve their jobs.
Fort Collins City Councilmember Ben Manvel is concerned. He’s even identified a culprit. In a recent e-mail, he proclaimed that “a significant portion of ozone generators are produced by lawn equipment.” Further, he noted that “80% of that is generated by commercial and governmental lawn operations.”
Apparently, mowing your lawn between 10 AM and 3 PM is especially damaging to our air quality. The city helpfully reminds us of this in its publication, “Clean Air – It’s up to us.” But you are supposed to mow your lawn regularly, according to the city, just not during the day. Oh, and keep it watered. But not too much. The proposed “nuisance” ordinances to regulate your lawn upkeep come before Council this month. (This city’s got me paranoid. Do I mow my lawn and pollute the air or do I let it grow longer and risk a nuisance violation? If I cut back on the sprinklers to conserve water, am I going to get in trouble for having a dead lawn?)
Where were we? Oh, yes, Ben Manvel and the lawn care industry. Having identified the problem (the ozone issue) and the cause (commercial and governmental lawn care), Councilmember Manvel floated two ideas in a public e-mail to the city manager:
First, he proposed avoiding governmental mowing between 10 AM and 3 PM on ozone alert days. (One assumes that the taxpayers would just pick up the tab for the requisite overtime.)
Second, he had the idea to “pass a law to reduce commercial lawn operations at similar times, or to discourage in some way.”
Sorry, kid. I can’t let you mow my lawn. You’d be breaking the new prohibitions on “commercial” mowing during the day. Why don’t you come back this evening when it’s legal?
How many people would be put out of work through such a ban? Does that even matter to Councilmember Manvel? A government-mandated shift to morning and evening mowing would cripple many small, seasonal lawn care businesses. Many of the smaller operations are staffed by people working weekend second jobs. One “ozone alert day” on a sunny Saturday and there wouldn’t be time to catch up. What about simply being able to work during the day and spend time with your family in the evening? Imagine a situation where, by government fiat, your job became illegal during business hours. (Sorry, you have to leave the office from 10 AM – 3 PM, but be sure to come back and make up those missing five hours tonight. You don’t mind, do you? It’s for the environment.)
To be fair, Councilmember Manvel has yet to propose a specific ordinance. Let’s be generous and assume that his e-mail was just him “thinking out loud,” so to speak. But there’s a pattern here. First, declare an environmental “problem,” (or, better yet, a “crisis”). Next, identify the “cause.” Finally, pass a law to outlaw or regulate the “cause.” Does the law raise taxes? Does it put people out of work? Does it create major inconvenience for people?
If you’ve successfully sold the “problem,” it makes it much, much easier to sell the “solution.”
And one more piece of our freedom is handed over to the government.
