New rules for leaf collection have merit.
A year ago at this time, nearly every New Jersey city, borough and township was gearing up to adopt something called a stormwater management plan which newspapers around the state duly covered and the citizenry duly ignored.
The mere mention of the subject matter stormwater management induced instantaneous boredom. The details related to impervious surface cover, retention and detention basins, nonpoint source pollution and other matters that don’t exactly come rolling off the tongue struck even the most earnest elected local officials as bureaucratic jargon, and seemed to make sense only to the municipal engineering staff. Reporters did their best to translate it all into a language readers could understand, but much was lost in translation.
Fast-forward a year, and folks all across New Jersey are suddenly sitting up and taking notice. No, it isn’t impervious surface or retention and detentions basins or nonpoint source pollution that has grabbed their attention.
It’s leaves.
Some New Jerseyans can still remember a time when the way to get rid of those colorful but pesky leaves that fall to the ground in great volume in late November and early December was to burn them. Our growing awareness of the causes and effects of air pollution led us to outlaw this very efficient but highly hazardous disposal option, however, so we turned to the next easiest solution: raking them out into the street and letting the municipality come and pick them up.
This worked for a good long while, until two things happened. First, many municipalities, already burdening their residents with unconscionably high property-tax bills, found they couldn’t afford to keep collecting and disposing of leaves without jacking up taxes even higher. Second, the state Department of Environmental Protection determined that allowing leaf piles to accumulate alongside roadways was causing storm sewers to back up, exacerbating flooding problems and allowing pollutants carried by rain water (oil from leaking automobile engines, for example) to lie around in stagnant pools for unacceptably long periods.
So the DEP prepared a list of best management practices for controlling stormwater runoff, and directed municipalities to adopt measures to that end. One of the more effective practices, the municipalities found, was to keep leaf piles out of the way of storm sewers. This, together with their desire to keep leaf-collection costs down, inspired them to introduce ordinances regulating how and when homeowners could dispose of their leaves. Most of these ordinances allow homeowners to rake their leaves out into the street only when their section of town is scheduled for municipal leaf collection, usually twice per season; otherwise, they have to pack their leaves into large, environmentally friendly bags, which are collected more frequently.
Needless to say, this does not sit well with a great many homeowners. Most were simply caught unaware by the sudden implementation of the new leaf-collection rules, and have had to scramble to adapt to the new method of leaf disposal or hire a lawn-care service to do it for them. A vocal minority, however, is doing its best to fan the flames of resentment fueled by government bashers who see the new rules not as a measure to protect the environment but as a means to balance the municipal budget through fines levied against those who violate the new rules.
Perhaps it’s our fault for not explaining stormwater management more clearly in the first place. Or government’s fault for not giving homeowners sufficient warning of the change that was coming this fall. But the new rules are here for a very legitimate reason and they’re here to stay. In our view, public-spirited residents will understand and embrace this change. And chronic malcontents should get over it.

