Kennewick has not codified a gas leaf blower ban, a decibel cap specific to leaf blowers, or restricted hours of operation. Use is governed by the general public-disturbance noise provisions of the Kennewick Municipal Code and by the statewide WAC 173-60 environmental noise standards, which lower the maximum permissible noise level at any residential receiving property by 10 dBA between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m.
Unlike a handful of Washington jurisdictions (notably parts of King County and the City of Seattle, which have considered gas-leaf-blower phase-outs), Kennewick has not adopted a leaf-blower-specific ordinance. Two layers control leaf-blower noise inside the city. First, the Kennewick Municipal Code, hosted on Code Publishing, prohibits sounds that unreasonably disturb the peace under its public-disturbance noise provisions. Second, the Department of Ecology's statewide environmental noise rule, WAC 173-60-040, sets maximum permissible noise levels at receiving properties by EDNA classification and lowers each cap by 10 dBA at residential receivers between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. A typical gas backpack leaf blower produces 65 to 75 dBA at the 50-foot reference distance, which puts unconstrained nighttime operation well above the residential 45 dBA cap and exposes the operator to a civil infraction. Daytime operation between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. is generally permitted, subject to the unreasonable-disturbance backstop. No state preemption bars Kennewick from adopting a future blower ordinance, but the city has not done so.
Operation of a leaf blower in violation of the Kennewick public-disturbance noise rule, or producing sound that exceeds the WAC 173-60-040 caps at a neighboring property, is a civil infraction enforceable by Kennewick Code Enforcement or Police, with fines set by the city's bail schedule. Repeat violations may trigger escalating penalties under the standard civil-infraction schedule.
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