A county proposal to keep leaves out of Dane County's lakes would step up enforcement -- and increase fines up to $1,000 -- in cities and villages where leaf laws are lax.

The ordinance would ban residents in cities, villages and towns from raking leaves into the street. Some municipalities -- including Verona, Brooklyn and Cambridge -- require residents to rake their leaves into the street. Public works directors are concerned the county ordinance would cost local taxpayers for new equipment and extended leaf collection hours.

"We think the biggest impact may be associated with the degree to which people who already know they shouldn't put them in the street, still do put them in the street," said John Magnuson, a UW-Madison limnologist who headed the committee that developed the ordinance.

The intent of the ordinance is to reduce runoff that provides nutrients for blue-green algae blooms.

"For urban areas, this is one of the major inputs of nutrients into the lake," Magnuson added. "Compared with manure and some of the agricultural inputs, it's small. Compared to other urban inputs, this is a big one. It may be for the urban areas the biggest single place where we can make a difference."

Ron Rieder, public works director in Verona, said the city can clear all of its streets every week with a hay stacker and street sweeper, which requires that residents rake leaves into the gutter. Compliance with the county ordinance would mean the city would have to spend $125,000 on leaf vacuums, which also would double the amount of time it takes to clear the whole city.

"I'm very concerned about it," Rieder said. "It's certainly going to increase our labor costs."

Many other municipalities, including Madison, already prohibit raking leaves in the street for pickup, but those ordinances aren't always enforced, said Madison Streets Division spokesman George Dreckmann.

Madison building inspectors who receive complaints about leaves in the street will notify homeowners and issue fines of between $109 and $298 if the leaves aren't removed within 24 hours, Dreckmann said.

The proposed county ordinance would impose fines of between $200 and $1,000. It also requires cities and villages to create and enforce ordinances as stringent as the county's, or else the county's Land and Water Resources Department could enforce the county ordinance within city boundaries.

Sup. Jack Martz, of Fitchburg, who worked on the leaf committee for the last three years, said the primary goal of the ordinance is not to crack down on homeowners, but to continue a public education campaign about the fallout of raking leaves over the curb.

"We're not going to hire 20 leaf police," Martz said. "We would hope enough people would be in compliance that we would have minimal enforcement."

The ordinance is being introduced at Thursday's Lakes and Watershed Commission meeting. If approved after being reviewed, the measure would be introduced to the County Board in two weeks.