Tallahassee, Fla.-A memo from Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) Secretary Colleen Castile to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush appeared to link fertilizer runoff with outbreaks of red tide, an algae that kills fish and other marine life in the Gulf of Mexico. During recent years, red tide outbreaks have become increasingly common. The memo also appeared to support allegations made by several environmental groups that there was a link between the two. The memo said it was known there was a link between the runoffs, particularly nitrogens and phosphates, but the amount necessary for it to become toxic was not known. FDEP was successfully sued over the issues in federal court in 2004, and the court ruled against the state’s claim there was no connection. It ordered the state to provide an updated list of the condition of the state’s 700 waterways. Environmentalists also charged the state had changed the definition of pollution in order to remove many of the waterways from the list of the contaminated.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain