N.J. groups refute fertilizer pollution claims

Ocean County, N.J.-The New Jersey Nursery and Landscape Association (NJNLA) and the New Jersey Green Industry Council (NJGIC) are teaming up to set the record straight about the source of rapidly rising nitrogen pollution in Barnegat Bay, an issue that could be resolved when Rutgers University scientists complete an in-depth study on a $486,600 federal grant received earlier this year. “It appears that fertilizer is no larger than a one percent source of the problem affecting the bay,” NJNLA Executive Director Carl Quazza advised Green Markets. “Unfortunately, the news articles lumped agriculture and lawn fertilizers into one very large and certainly vague category presenting fertilizer as the main source of the pollution problem.” NJGIC Executive Director Nancy Sadlon asserted in the local press, “Our sense is that we’re a small, a very small part, which doesn’t seem to be understood or resonate with legislators or be understood by the public. I think fertilization gets a bad rap.” But a group of environmentalists, state officials, and scientists is insisting that fertilizer that runs into the bay and its tributaries during rainstorms is one of the largest sources of pollution. The issue came up at a recent joint hearing of the state senate and assembly environment committees, where nearly two dozen people who testified identified the main issues threatening the life of the bay – nitrogen loading from lawn fertilizers, and water intake and discharge from the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station. The group Save Barneget Bay has responded with proposed restrictions on types of fertilizers used in sensitive areas surrounding the bay that it hopes will be adopted across Ocean County. But NJNLA’s Quazza warned, “As is often the case with these issues, a visible industry is unfairly deemed the culprit or cause when it is in most cases just like this one the largest cause belongs to the public sector. Old septic fields, even the relaxed septic and storm water discharge of municipal and county facilities, certainly contribute much higher levels of pollutants to the bay. This source of pollution is overlooked because it would be politically incorrect to scream for changes and improvements to these sources. Laws can be passed limiting fertilizers, yet if objective tests are taken you will probably see no net change to the actual water quality.”