The Colorado Air Quality Control Commission voted in favor of new rules for some lawn and garden equipment Friday morning.
Commissioners passed the motion unanimously, with a 8-0 vote.
The move would ban gas-powered push lawn mowers and handheld landscaping tools under 25 horse power on state property. The new rules would ban the same equipment under 10 horsepower on public property across the Front Range between Castle Rock and Fort Collins.
It’s important to emphasize these changes will not impact homeowners on their private property.
“It covers all other government property, including your local parks, schools, you know, we want to make sure that our air quality even at our local neighborhood schools is as good as possible,” Kirsten Schatz, a clean air advocate with CoPIRG, said.
The new rules go into effect in the summer of 2025.
Colorado’s Regional Air Quality Council voted to approve these recommendations in July of 2023 in response to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decided to downgrading the Northern Front Range’s ozone problem from serious to severe .