Sarasota-By a single day, Sarasota County beat a potential deadline for local governments to adopt their own rules for regulating the use of fertilizers ?Çô if the Florida Legislature adopts a proposal. However, the rules the county adopted were not as strict as had been originally proposed. The new rules approved by the county commission on April 30 called for companies that do professional fertilizer applications to have trained their employees on protection of water resources within six months or face fines of up to $500 and up to 60 days in jail for company representatives. Initially, the county proposal called for a ban on the use of fertilizers with more than 2 percent phosphorus, as well as prohibiting use within 25 feet of a body of water. The bill in the legislature, CS/HB 1197, would create a study group of representatives from the fertilizer industry, agriculture, water management districts, the legislature, and local governments, and report its findings and recommendations for statewide rules by Jan. 15, 2008. The fertilizer industry said it would be difficult or impossible to meet rules for all cities and counties in the state. It would have also prohibited local governments from adopting their own rules on May 1. The legislative session ended May 4, but the bill had not been brought up for a vote late last week.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain