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State Tries To Clean Up Farms

Greg Fight / Tampa Tribune

Tampa Wholesale Nursery recycles water as part of a state effort to reduce agricultural pollution.

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By MIKE SALINERO, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 18, 2007

Florida is enlisting the help of hundreds of farmers and nursery growers to clean up the state's polluted waterways, but environmentalists complain the environment is suffering under the partnership.

Agricultural operations have historically been among the state's leading water polluters. That's why the state is signing up as many growers as possible for a voluntary pollution management program. In return for implementing "best management practices," the farmers are spared much of the regulatory red tape the state Department of Environmental Protection imposes on other polluters.

Officials with DEP and state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services say the program already has been successful in getting hundreds of farmers and container plant growers to use modern farming techniques that keep pollution out of waterways.

Not everyone is happy with the program, however. Some environmental groups say agriculture, the second-largest industry in Florida, used its political clout to get a break on costly monitoring and record-keeping requirements that other industries have had to deal with for decades.

"There is no monitoring, no accountability, no enforceability," said Linda Young, Florida director of the Clean Water Network. "DEP uses a presumption of compliance that water quality standards are being met when we know it's not the case, because if it were the case, farmers wouldn't be so adamantly opposed to monitoring."

Advocates say a voluntary program works better with farmers, a notoriously independent breed.

"They're very fearful of a government program," said Jemy Hinton, a University of Florida agriculture worker who signs up growers for the program. "Even though it's in their best interest, they're still suspicious."

Supporters also say extensive monitoring would be a financial burden for farmers who are already struggling to compete with low-cost imported fruits and vegetables. They say modern techniques reduce pollution; whether they are reducing it enough can be judged over time based on whether water quality improves.

"They're doing the same thing they would do if they had a permit, but they do it voluntarily and DEP doesn't have to come out and check them over," Hinton said.

Helping Environment Can Pay Off

Happily for growers, taking the environmentally friendly path can also pay off in cost savings and water conservation. Tampa Wholesale Nursery, 15 miles east of Tampa in Dover, recycles up to 100,000 gallons of water daily. That's dirty water that would have washed off the 70-acre nursery, ending up in the nearest stream or river. And it reduces the amount of water the nursery pumps out of the ground.

"If we can save 80,000 or 100,000 gallons of water out of the aquifer, we're helping everybody," said Kurt Johnson, who manages the nursery.

The nursery also irrigates its plants with treated wastewater from nearby Tampa Bay Fisheries, a seafood packing plant.

Dover farmer John Stickles uses drip irrigation instead of conventional broadcast spray irrigation on his blueberry and strawberry fields. He mixes liquid fertilizer in with the water to economize on both.

"The efficiency is you put water and fertilizer right where you want it, when you want it," Stickles said.

Drip irrigation also prevents some plant diseases that occur when nonpotable water is sprayed on the plants' leaves.

"We spray less because we have less tissue diseases on the plants," Stickles said.

The recommended growing practices cover virtually every aspect of agricultural operations. Contouring fields and growing grass over drainage ways cuts erosion. Vegetated buffers and berms can hold back water until it percolates into the ground. Chicken manure can be composted.

The management program now covers fruit and vegetable farms, nurseries and citrus. The state will start enrolling cattle ranches sometime next year after a manual is approved detailing which pollution-reduction practices will be approved.

Farmers can get grants for 50 percent to 75 percent of the costs of implementing the program from the agriculture department, water management districts and the federal Natural Resource Conservation Service. Free engineering consultation on building the projects is another incentive to join the program.

No Firm Deadline To Sign Up

Despite the incentives, only about 25 percent of Hillsborough County's agricultural acreage is signed up for the program, which started in 2004. Nurseries are only slightly better, with 41 percent of the Hillsborough acreage enrolled.

For now, there is no firm deadline by which all the growers must be signed up. Hillsborough growers will come under increasing pressure to start the practices after DEP approves pollution-reduction plans for the Hillsborough and Alafia rivers and their tributaries.

"At that point, you're a little more under the microscope," said Bill Bartnick, an environmental administrator with the agriculture department. "The state is clear: Either you do best management practices or you monitor at your own costs."

The Department of Environmental Protection will be the ultimate judge of whether best management practices are doing enough to reduce agricultural pollution. If impaired waterways don't improve, the agency will be looking for further reductions from all polluters, farmers included.

"If we come back and it doesn't appear sufficient progress is being made ... communities may be required to do more, agriculture may be required to do more," said Tom Singleton, a DEP administrator working on pollution-reduction plans for watersheds.

The state is trying to persuade growers to enroll in a voluntary program to reduce pollution into area waterways. The figures below show that the state still has a ways to go in signing up a majority of the growers.

Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303 or msalinero@tampatrib.com.

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