Morro Bay, Calif.-Agriculture interests believe city officials are jumping to conclusions when they claim vegetable and avocado growers in the lower Morro Valley area are over-using nitrogen fertilizer and causing nitrate levels in the groundwater to exceed state standards. “It amounts to a lot of maybes, estimations, might-bes and assumptions,” asserted San Luis Obispo County Farm Bureaus Legal Analyst Joy Fizhugh. “And this doesn’t lead to hard conclusions. What they better do is get some more facts together, because it may be the poor condition of the sewer system that’s causing the problem.” Fitzhugh said the growers were surprised by the city’s reaction to a groundwater study done by a San Luis Obispo consulting firm concluding that was the growers’ use of nitrogen fertilizers that caused high nitrate levels in city wells. She said it was unfortunate that the city attorney threatened legal action when both sides need to discuss the problem and resolve their differences. To this end, Fizhugh reported, the Farm Bureau and other agriculture-related groups are putting together a series of focused workshops on irrigation methods to bring about “more education on both sides of the spectrum.” She wants the city to realize that farmers are required to take 15 hours of water quality education and work through regional boards to develop management plans. “It’s hard to believe with the high cost of fertilizer that they (the farmers) are over-applying,” Fizhugh insisted. “They’re fairly sophisticated people who know what they are doing, not out just blanketing the world with fertilizer.” Kay Mercer, coordinator of the Agricultural Watershed Coalition for southern San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, told the local press that growers were unhappy about being accused of causing the elevated nitrogen levels. Estimates of fertilizer use were made with data that likely is outdated, she said.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain