Fairfax County could end leaf vacuum service
The Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services (DPWES) is recommending the Board of Supervisors end the vacuum leaf collection service.
The county vacuums fall leaf piles on curbs for 25,000 customers, the vast majority of whom live in Mason District.
Customers are encouraged to take a survey to inform policymakers about the county’s leaf collection service. The deadline is Aug. 18.
If approved, vacuum leaf collections would end after the 2023-24 season. The Board of Supervisors will make a final decision following a public hearing this fall.
According to the DPWES, “Providing vacuum leaf collection has negatively impacted our ability to deliver core trash, recycling, and yard waste collection services and cannot be provided consistently and safely for all customers.”
Between November and January, there are three collection rounds, with the goal of collecting all leaves in the county’s 10 vacuum leaf sanitary districts. Eight of those districts are entirely or partially in Mason District.
Vacuum leaf collection is funded by a collection levy of $0.012 per $100 of assessed real estate value for residents within a vacuum leaf sanitary district. The levy generated approximately $2.3 million in fiscal year 2023.
DWES estimates the vacuum leaf program will incur a $900,000 deficit for 2023 due to the need to hire an additional contractor, extra overtime for county employees, additional temporary workers, and unexpected price increases.
During vacuum season that began on Oct. 31, 2022, leaf collections were significantly delayed due to several factors, DPWES states:
- Early leaf volumes were higher than normal, and total leaf volumes collected this year were more than 50 percent higher than last year. Higher volumes meant trucks filled faster, leading to more time in transit hauling leaves and longer to complete any one area.
- The new seasonal contractor DPWES hired was not fully prepared at the beginning of the season, as their trucks needed unplanned adjustments to be compatible with the vacuum units.
- DPWES equipment was not fully ready at the beginning of the season due to long delays in getting parts.
- It was difficult to find temporary contract workers willing to work this physically demanding job for only four months a year.
- Staff was unable to keep up with posting yard signs advising customers of collection delays. In December, staff adjusted all 450 yard signs adding a QR code linking to the DPWES website.
- Initial attempts to bring on an additional contractor to increase collection capacity were not successful. A second contractor was added in December using an emergency procurement process, resulting in an unplanned cost of approximately $500,000.
- DPWES staff routinely worked overtime with 10-hour shifts and worked on Saturdays. This increased operating expenses by more than $100,000.
DPWES says it received numerous complaints from customers about the safety impact of uncollected leaves. That includes blocked storm drains, fire hazards from cars parking on leaves, pedestrians forced to walk in the street, the risk of falling from walking on slippery leaves, and reduced on-street parking.
According to the agency, vacuuming up leaves from the curb and transporting them to a waste facility conflicts with the Board of Supervisors’ goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It says on-site composting of leaves would thus be more sustainable.
DPWES recommends terminating the vacuum leaf sanitary districts and eliminating the service tax for the 2024-25 season. Other trash, recycling, and yard waste collections would not be affected.
42 responses to “Fairfax County could end leaf vacuum service”
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If leaf collection ceases, how do we handle our leaves then? We have to bag em, and take them to the trash composting places?
If you just mow them you can eliminate fertilizer because the leaves will mulch and provide the same nutrients your lawn needs. And you can say goodbye to the chemicals that you don’t need.
You can “just mow them” if you don’t have acres of massive, mature trees. If you tried to mow all my leaves, you would be left with a foot of brown mulch all over all the grass. Why are we paying taxes? Is it for the schools, the fire department, the police, the roads? The schools are horrible, don’t need the fire department (ever), the police are non-existent, the roads suck. 1/2 the time the garbage doesn’t get picked up. And the garbage people won’t honor special “pick ups” even if you comply with their absurdly stringent rules. Now, no leaf pickup? Time to start an organized effort against the taxes we pay.
What is your solution to the home owner? We should pay a company to do the services that our taxes pay Fairfax County to do? Well how about we deduct the amount from our taxes.
While on-site mulching may be the sustainable option, I don’t think that a majority of people will do that. People are still having problems remembering to not put out yard waste in plastic bags, sorting their recyclables correctly and even to know to call in bulk pickups. That will leave the roads filled with decaying leaves that could potentially pose another hazard.
The county is atrocious at providing this service because they don’t plan ahead (seriously, their reason is that leaves came early) and don’t plan for enough trucks. But their incompetence in this area is not a reason to discontinue the service. Since I live in a tree covered area, my leaves stand about three feet high and cover the entire front of my curbs, and this happens twice during the pickup time. I would have a compost area twenty feet tall so they are dreaming that this is a viable solution. We will have to pay to have our leaves bagged, and Fairfax County will still have to figure out a way to dispose of them. They don’t just disappear. I hate it that the staff is so inconvenienced by having to do a job that, for us, they have done over 45 years. We have less trees now, not more. Figure it out Fairfax County, and keep our service.
Lots of folks in the county who don’t have leaf vacuum service envy us who do. For a $700K house, the current levy is $84/year. Even if the levy is raised 50%, the service will still be a bargain.
No gas leaf blowers and no leaf service. It’s as if the county wants residents to cut down all the trees.
I’m now going to burn 🔥 my leaves I guess.
Excellent. I’ll do the same, in the front yard, in compliance with the FD’s guidelines for fire pit, which are super easy to accommodate. Basically you just need a bunch of rocks or pavers, and have to be a little bit away from a structure.
Fairfax county government has real problems. It cannot seem to get core functions right; and is to much worried about stuff that seems good but is actually a big inconvenience or creates other problems.
Police, fire, water/sewage, trash/ yard waste. If these aren’t working then nothing else can and will work.
If these foundational county services are breaking or broken – such as trash – it should tell each of us that other VIP services – such as schools – have real problems too. Oh, and save your lip, what I’ve outlined as foundational has to work or you can’t have other important services.
The County is failing its tax payers terribly: can’t ticket speeders, can’t stop noisy souped up cars, can’t control crime, can’t educate, cannot clean our roadways, cannot pick up trash and now they don’t want to pick up our leaves; the only time our street curb gutters get cleaned. Guaranteed, people will leave the leaves at the curb as they do now with their junk, unused furniture and mattresses for all of us to have to live with. Additionally, these uncollected leaves and the garbage left at the curb find its way into our stormwater management. How is this environmentally safe? NOT!
Waste management use to pick up whatever was left at the curb and we had a much cleaner county. Now we truly live in one huge GARBAGE DUMP, specifically in Mason and Lee Districts.
BTW, the damn survey does not work on their website; safari and chrome note the page cannot be found. The County cannot even do this right. So how is it that we need any County government at all if they CANNOT DO ANYTHING???
They don’t care about survey results. They just want to say they did a survey. Broken link is beautiful, as that decreases the likelihood they won’t get results they don’t want, and they can still say they engaged the community.
Why is this page not displaying the comments? Seems to happen more often with potentially controversial topics.
There seems to be a caching problem when viewed on a phone.
Thank you for addressing this problem. I’ve noticed this problem beginning a month or so ago.
I have to admit it’s confusing and a little frustrating to see a number under the headline of a post indicating the number of comments that the moderator has allowed to be made publicly available under the article; then clicking on the article and seeing fewer than the number of comments expected; and oftentimes no comments.
Oh well. Kinda like Fairfax County, poorer service provided over time.
Unlike Fairfax County, taxpayers don’t pay for the service provided by this website. But, considering Fairfax County is a one-party dominated jurisdiction, I expect the quality of life will get worse for the majority of the residents of Fairfax County before it begins to get better.
The comment issue has been fixed.
Thanks! And thanks for running this site on your own completely free time, a platform for Annandale news!
But it hasn’t! It’s still happening!
Great, fewer services while our taxes go up. My neighborhood doesn’t even have leaf cleanup and I wish we did. the reasons they state are just excuses to not do their job.
sounds like the second contractor was a buddy of the DPWES and just collected the 500K. how about better planning and management, oh wait let’s just throw money at the problem.
None of the comments are coming through, not one on Safari or Chrome.
The vacuum leaf collection program serves property owners in older parts of the county. It has been in operation for decades. If, suddenly, there are issues with program operations, the county should address those issues, not end the program. C’mon, Fairfax, fix it.
It appears that these homeowners will have to do what the rest of the county does, rake and bag their leaves. We have county trash/recycling but no leaf pick up. We have a large lot with lots of mature trees and manage just fine.
This program has caused hazards for years. Tons of leaves blown into the street causing slick roads when it rains and decreased driving lanes and street parking that last for weeks until they were picked up.
I say good riddance to it.
Bag leaves? My yard would take approximately 1000 bags of leaves. Maybe more. Absolutely cost-prohibitive. What are the bags made out of? What picks up the leaves, something powered by fossil fuels?
1000+ paper bags? Wow. You must live on multiple acres that are all trees. I’m not sure how the county service is able to collect all those leaves. Just your house must fill their truck.
If you are able to blow/rake them to the street, surely you are able to bag them.
1000+ paper bags? Wow. You must live on multiple acres that are all trees. I’m not sure how the county service is able to collect all those leaves. Just your house must fill their truck.
If you are able to blow/rake them to the street, surely you are able to bag them.
I get that taking away a service you’re used to is hard and frustrating.
What do you think picks up the leaves by the county? A huge truck powered by fossil fuels.
I believe that was Sammie’s point, which appears to have gone over your head.
People need to learn the value of leaves and leaving the leaves on their property. The ridiculous modern practice of getting rid of every last leaf on a property, usually with gas-belching leaf blowers, is extremely wasteful and deleterious to nature. Leaves provide valuable nutrients to soil and over-winter homes to important and beautiful pollinating insects. If you don’t want leaves on your precious grass, all you have to do is pile up leaves in a corner of your yard and watch how quickly the pile breaks down. It can then be used for mulch or mixed in with existing soil to provide healthy nutrients. No chemical fertilizer necessary.
Says the person with a tiny yard. Leaves left in place in my yard take days and days to clean up WITH industrial blowers, huge rakes, huge tarps, and two strong teenaged sons. And I am young-ish and in excellent shape. Leaves left in place in my yard would suffocate trees and plants. I know because it has happened!
Leaves also bring rodents which bring disease, so says my pest guy of 25 years.
Leaf piles are rat houses
https://www.modernpest.com/blog/pests-lurking-bottom-leaf-pile/
Leaf piles bring rodents. Rodents bing snakes. I hope you all like rats and snakes. Crikey.
Actually food brings rats.
Shows how well our government really runs, glad y’all can see easier now. But seriously mow the freaking leaves or if you have massive acreage then pay someone or downsize and stop acting like this is the end of the world LOL
I think the larger point is that the local government is truly failing its residents, and this is the last example. I’ve lived here since the early 1980s; this BOS has done more damage, real and perceived, than their predecessors by far. It seems like they are working against us. The increased property assessments two years ago, when property values were decreasing everywhere including neighboring counties, was criminal as far as I’m concerned. The crime is out of control. **Perplexed**
Do you have an extra $2,000 I can have? I’m retired and house poor, thank you very much.
Good riddance. I don’t want to walk or drive along streets with wet, slippery leaves strewn all around. Mulch your leaves, rake and bag them up, or just leave them be.
Dawna, there are more leaves to slip on if they’re not removed.
People will burn their leaves like they use to, this will create a much greater environmental hazard than the fossil fuels used for the trucks.
The leave will end up being burned in a barrel as they did back in the 1950-1970s which is much worse for the environment and a health hazard than the trucks using fossil fuels to vacuum up the leaves. The general population does not have the time to mulch or bag and thus they will be left to clog up storm drains and make pavement very slippery when wet.
Not removing the leaves is such a bad and stupid idea it doesn’t even warrant a conversation. Fairfax is moving backwards instead of forward……….very scary. The average house pays $7-12K in property taxes and this is the best Fairfax can do, are you idiots?
Based on mean home price in FFX of $720k, average house pays around $6.4k. Your point still stands though.