Johnnie St. Vrain: Longmont wants leaves in bags or in yard, not blown into street

Dear Readers: I don’t have a fresh answer this week, so here’s a column about leaf pickup originally published in October of 2013. I changed the dates in the column to reflect current deadlines.

Dear Johnnie: My neighbor used a leaf blower to move all of the leaves in her yard into the gutter. I thought we were supposed to bag them up for collection, but she said the city wants leaves loose in the gutter so they can be picked up with a sweeper. Is she right about this? — Blown Away

Dear Blown Away: She is wrong about this.

Blowing leaves and trash out of your yard and into the street is illegal, because the leaves and trash could end up in the storm drain. Water that runs into the storm drainage system is not treated, so the water and everything it’s carrying flow directly into the rive