Tallahassee-A provision in a bill being considered by the Florida Senate that would have overridden stricter water quality standards set by local governments (GM April 19, p. 10) was deleted by a 4-3 vote last week in committee. Meanwhile, the Tampa City Council voted to support a county ordinance that would ban the sale of nitrogen-enriched lawn fertilizer during the rainy season. The Senate measure would have eliminated local standards to control water pollution. Fertilizer runoff, especially nitrogen and phosphate, was believed to be a significant factor in the growth of algae in rivers, lakes, and streams, as well as red tide in the Gulf of Mexico. Red tide outbreaks have been responsible for major fish kills in the Gulf. They normally occur during the summer months, when rain and heat combine to spawn outbreaks. Pinellas County (St. Petersburg/Clearwater), has the strictest ordinance; it bans both the sale and use of fertilizer during the summer. Across Tampa Bay, Hillsborough County’s environmental regulators were poised to ban the sale of nitrogen-based fertilizer during the summer, and its largest city, Tampa, voted to support the measure.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain