Fertilizer ban effort fails

Rejecting calls from environmentalists, Hillsborough County backed away from a proposed ban on the sale of lawn fertilizer with nitrogen in the rainy seasons.

Instead, the county's Environmental Protection Commission, which is made up of Hillsborough County commissioners, on Thursday approved new regulations that will restrict homeowners from applying nitrogen-based fertilizer before heavy rainfalls. The new rules also will prohibit the use of fertilizer within 10 feet of a body of water.

Farmers who use fertilizer for agricultural purposes will be exempt from the regulations.

Several commissioners said they thought a proposed ban went too far to curb what some referred to as an "insignificant amount" of nitrogen from lawn fertilizers.

Commissioner Mark Sharpe cited research indicating less than 1 percent of the nitrogen flowing into the region's waterways comes from residential lawn fertilizer applications.

"If we gave everyone pooper-scoopers and took the poop out of folks' yards, we could actually affect more than 8 percent of the nitrogen going into the Bay," Sharpe said.

Sharpe also pointed out that the county lacks the resources to enforce a fertilizer ban.

But dissenters Rose Ferlita and Kevin Beckner said the new rules - which will apply to residents and businesses operating in unincorporated Hillsborough as well as Tampa, Plant City and Temple Terrace - didn't go far enough to protect the environment.

Scientists at the county and Tampa Bay Estuary Program recommended the ban, saying fertilizers contribute to nutrient pollution that saps the oxygen in waterways and fuels algae blooms that harm marine life. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has labeled hundreds of state waters as "impaired" because of nutrient pollution, including parts of Tampa Bay and the Hillsborough and Alafia rivers.

Last year, the state Legislature passed a law requiring all local governments to adopt, at a minimum, a model ordinance that prohibits homeowners and commercial landscapers from applying fertilizer before heavy rains. But counties with impaired waters can adopt more stringent rules such as banning the sale and application of fertilizer with nitrogen.

Lawn-care and turf-grass industry groups reject claims by environmental groups that rain washes fertilizer off lawns and into stormwater drains and, ultimately, the waterways. Opponents of the ban say summer is a critical growing period when turf grasses need nitrogen the most.