For Immediate Release
February 4, 2020
Contacts: Cris
Costello, cris.costello@sierraclub.org,
941-914-0421
**
PRESS RELEASE**
NEW COALITION FOR WATER QUALITY?
Turf and agrichemical industries fail to hide
behind “green” name
SARASOTA – From 2007 through 2014, the turf and agrichemical industries
tried to get the state legislature to preempt local control of urban
fertilizer. They are back at it again
under the guise of the “green” sounding moniker “Floridians for Water Quality
Protection,” a new coalition announced today by representatives from Massey
Services, Environmental & Turf
Services, Inc., and Mac Carraway, the former president of a large turf farm and
well-known opponent of strong urban fertilizer regulation
Cris
Costello, Sierra Club Organizing Manager:
“The backbone of water quality protection in Florida over the past 13
years has been the ability for local governments to regulate sources of
pollution in their own backyards. Because watersheds are different, it has made
every sense to take a watershed-by-watershed approach to fully consider the
unique needs and circumstances of each community. Since 2007, thirteen counties and nearly
ninety municipalities have adopted what the 63 organizations of Everglades
Coalition and many other organizations like the Florida Springs Council, Save
the Manatee Club and Waterkeepers Florida, consider to be strong, protective
urban fertilizer ordinances. The major,
and in many cases, sole purpose of the above organizations is to protect and
restore water quality.
What we call “strong” urban fertilizer ordinances include provisions for: Strict (no exemption) rainy season Nitrogen (N)
and Phosphorus (P) application bans, and limits on the rates, content and
location of Nitrogen and Phosphorus application during the other months of the
year.
The science behind the state’s many strong
ordinances is voluminous. Each and every county that has adopted a strong
ordinance since 2007, and especially since 2009, has a public record of all of
the science it used to determine the viability of a strong ordinance in their
respective watershed. In 2009 Florida Statute (403.9337) mandated
that each ordinance stronger than the Florida Department of Environmental
Protection (FDEP) Model ordinance be “science-based, and economically and technically
feasible” – since that date ordinances covering 11 counties, and in most cases
all of their respective municipalities, have been adopted and
implemented.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and
Consumer Services (FDACS) has never challenged the science behind any of the
existing ordinances. In fact, in
December 2014 FDACS updated the labeling requirements for DIY bags of turf
fertilizer in the state to include the following language: “Check with
your county or city government to determine if there are local regulations for
fertilizer use.”
The natural resource staff at the local government level, those who have
drafted and implemented these strong ordinances, do nothing but fight for the best protection of
their local waterways. To claim that the
strong ordinances “appear to have been designed by people who don’t care about
protecting Florida’s water quality” is outrageous. Mr. Stuart Z. Cohen, Ph.D., CGWP, president
of Environmental & Turf Services, Inc. should stay in Maryland.
The fertilizer
industry’s response has been positive. In 2015 Scotts® announced their new summer-safe, no N-no P, turf product. It is
an example of the positive response received by many urban fertilizer
manufacturers since the first summer rainy season bans were adopted in 2007,
especially those manufacturers based in Florida. Pinellas County keeps a long
running list of strong ordinance compliant products.
Lawns are healthier
with less nitrogen. Many homeowners, homeowner
associations, and lawn maintenance professionals have found that the decrease
in application of N has led to less pest and fungus damage, and therefore less turf
replacement and less need for pesticide and fungicide treatments.
Is it not apparent
why this group of turf growers and agrichemical industry representatives is
going after strong urban fertilizer management?
Too much N means more turf sales, more pesticide sales, more fungicide
sales, and more N sales. For this group
to claim that it is interested in water quality when they are all about ending
strong urban fertilizer regulation is not only disingenuous but is ridiculous. Naming itself “Floridians for Water Quality
Protection” does not mask the fact that it is an industry group that wants an
end to the regulation of a source of pollution that fuels harmful algae
blooms. This group must assume that the
legislature will take this farce of a coalition as a reason to tie the hands of
local governments from protecting their residents’ public health and their waterfront-based
economies from the loss of tourism jobs and property values.
Questions to ask and get
answers to:
- What businesses/organizations make up this new coalition?
- Is urban fertilizer preemption their only focus?
- They use the Indian River Lagoon as an example of a regional approach that has worked. Would this group then promote the same 4-month rainy season blackout period for N and P application that now covers the Indian River Lagoon region for all of the state?
Note, Mac Carraway and EREF
are the same industry players that have filed a legal challenge against the
City of Naples’ re-established rainy season blackout period ordinance which
closely mirrors the ordinance provisions now protecting the Indian River Lagoon.
In conclusion, strict rainy season ban ordinances have been in effect in Florida for
nearly 13 years and have become a set of well-established and accepted
practices through which local governments can address and reduce pollution
borne by local stormwater runoff. The
only way to argue against such success is to throw around falsehoods and hide
behind a “green” name.”
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