NEWS

Rainy season fertilizer bans start today

Jim Waymer
FLORIDA TODAY

Time again to lay off the fertilizer.

Rainy season residential fertilizing bans kick in throughout Brevard County on June 1 and run through Sept. 30.

Communities along the Indian River Lagoon enacted the rainy season fertilizer bans in recent years after intense algae blooms resulted in widespread seagrass loss and wildlife die-offs.

It is also illegal to blow grass clippings into streets or stormwater drains at any time of the year. Clippings should be blown back into yards, bagged or composted.

Violators can face fines of several hundred dollars, depending on where they live.

"We all have a role to play in protecting the Indian River Lagoon, especially when maintaining our lawns," Melbourne City Engineer Jenni Lamb, said in a release. "Fertilizing during the rainy season and blowing grass clippings into streets and storm drains have been identified as among the most harmful sources of pollution in the Indian River Lagoon."

Officials hope less fertilizer on grass will grow back more seagrass in the lagoon, by reducing the frequency and intensity of algae blooms.

Last year, in the first summer of widespread bans in most of Brevard County, manufacturers distributed almost two-thirds less fertilizer here during peak months, state agriculture data shows.

As the bans set in, lawn fertilizer distribution plummeted. Industry officials said it's too soon to read a trend, but some businesses aren't waiting. They're already selling new, more lagoon-friendly blends.

Sun Harbor Nursery in Indian Harbour Beach, for example, began selling a new slow-release nitrogen fertilizer blend before the bans took effect.

The local ordinances require slow-release nitrogen and share other similar provisions but differ in the buffers required when fertilizing near waters.

According to state department of agriculture data:

Before the bans, amid extensive public debate about the effects to the lagoon, turf fertilizer distributed in Brevard increased by 22 percent over the previous fiscal year, to 4,179 tons.

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But as the summer bans set in last summer and word spread, lawn fertilizer distribution in June, July and August dipped sharply in Brevard, to 488 tons, compared with 1,385 tons during the same three-month period the previous year, a 65 percent drop.

Fertilizer ordinances haven't been in effect long enough to read a trend, industry and government officials have said. Many variables affect fertilizer sales, making it hard to attribute short- or long-term changes to any one single factor, including new restrictions.

Early this year, a study for the Tampa Bay Estuary Program found that similar fertilizer ordinances enacted along the bay area resulted in people fertilizing less. But it will take several more years of sampling data to prove the ordinances improved water quality in the stormwater ponds that ultimately flow to the bay.

"We can't make those direct connections," said Ed Sherwood, senior scientist with the Tampa Bay Estuary Program. "It's going to take some time for a couple of rainy season bans to occur before we start to see improvements in those communities."

But the bay's water quality has been improving since the ordinances took effect, Sherwood said, and are thought to be one of the reasons why.

Many lagoon advocates point to the Tampa Bay Estuary Program as proof strong fertilizer rules work. The bay's seagrass recovered after major stormwater and sewer upgrades, as well as strong local fertilizer ordinances.

But there wasn't much change in nitrogen fertilizer sales after rainy season bans took effect in that region. The exception was Pinellas County, which in 2011 banned retail sales of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers.

In the first year of the ban, nitrogen fertilizer sales in Pinellas dropped almost 20 percent.

In recent years, unprecedented algae blooms have choked off tens of thousands of acres of seagrass in the lagoon. Seagrass is an important source of food and shelter for marine life in the lagoon.

The seagrass die-off was followed by the mysterious deaths of large numbers of manatees, dolphins and pelicans.

Excessive nitrogen and phosphorous — the active ingredients in most fertilizer — is suspected of feeding the lagoon's algae blooms.

Leaking septic tanks, pet waste, power plants, tailpipes and groundwater also contribute nitrogen and phosphorus to the lagoon, with each pound capable of growing more than 500 pounds of algae.

But stricter fertilizer rules have been the recent focus as an inexpensive way for the county to reduce nutrients flowing into the lagoon.

County officials had vowed initially not to seek out offenders, but to respond to complaints that the fertilizer rules were being broken. Code-enforcement officers who witness people violating the rules can issue fines up to $500.

The ordinance also bans use of phosphorus-containing fertilizer without a soil test to prove the chemical is needed. Much of Florida's soils are considered already rich in phosphorus. The previous ordinance had allowed low-phosphorus fertilizers without the soil test.

The ordinance also requires at least 50 percent slow-release nitrogen fertilizer.

Lawn-care interests said to trust the licensed professionals, that the rules threatened lawns, livelihoods and rights and were unenforceable.

The state is requiring Brevard within 15 years to reduce the amount of nitrogen and phosphorous flowing into its share of the lagoon, by more than half in some areas.

Contact Waymer at 321-242-3663 or jwaymer@floridatoday.com Follow him on Twitter @JWayEnviro

To learn more

•To learn about and sign up for the My Brevard Yard program, visit:

http://mybrevardyard.eventbrite.com

Or call the Brevard County Extension Office: 321-633-1702.

•Brevard County Extension:

http://brevard.ifas.ufl.edu

Brevard County Extension horticulture information: http://brevard.ifas.ufl.edu/Horticulture/

index.shtml

•Check out your city's fertilizer ordinance here: http://brevard.ifas.ufl.edu/ordinances.shtml