Tell Fl legislators NOT to alter rainy season fertilizer BAN

Stop SB 606 HB 457
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Written by Snook and Gamefish Foundation staff | 17 March 2011

Tell your legislators NOT to change rainy season fertilizer bans - Let's NOT erase progress made protecting our waters

Excess nutrients from fertilizer and other sources find their way through inland waterways to bays and inshore waters where they contribute to algae blooms and habitat degradation.Florida’s Snook, Trout, Redfish, Tarpon and Bonefish, Ducks, shore and wading birds…well, all the wildlife that depends on our estuaries, bays, rivers and lakes are in danger! Our marine life is at peril due to legislation being considered in Tallahassee. All of us who hunt and fish or just enjoy the outdoor life need to be concerned.

State Senate Bill 606 by Evers and House Bill 457 by Ingram would repeal [existing laws] that currently allow counties and cities to protect against polluting nutrients from fertilizers getting into our state’s waterways.

Driven by retailers like Home Depot and Lowes and the Florida Retail Federation, the bills would take away the power of local ordinances that are now prohibiting application of fertilizers during rainy seasons. This is the time of year when most of the runoff of excess nitrogen and phosphorous winds up in the water, causing those massive algae blooms in the aquatic environment.

*Weigh In [click here to read - SFRP Council letter]
Excess nutrients from fertilizer and other sources find their way into juvenile game fish habitat, choking out the elements needed for their growth and maturation.

Phone in today - [numbers to call]

Why is Tallahassee doing this? Because under current law,the big box stores in many locales can’t sell as much fertilizer as they want to, and they are working hard with lawmakers to get their way. Therefore, it’s about selling a product, fertilizer... and not about the quality of life we want for our fish and wildlife. Who decides that we have to accept more algae producing nitrogen and phosphorous in our waterways in any given city or county? It is well known that turf grasses need to be cut twice a week in the summer months not fertilized.

We already have common sense no-cost measures in place or in progress, that are protecting our fisheries in the counties and cities that need it most.
Cities and Counties bear the financial losses and lifestyle consequences of the lack of waterway quality and should not be stripped of the power needed for the protection of water and wildlife resources under their domain. Coastal Counties depend on good fishing to fill hotels and restaurants during the summer months. Many of the jobs being 'protected' by the proposed senate and house bills are out of state jobs. The fishing/hunting/outdoor tourism industry in Florida is 100% Florida jobs.

Let's keep our waters healthy for future generations
These bills have passed out of the Agriculture committees in the Senate and the House, but they have more stops and can, and should, be defeated!! Help stop the potential increase of pollution from harmful nutrients from fertilizer by the contacting the Legislators on the Community Affairs committees and the Bill sponsors. Tell them to protect Florida’s waterways and marine life and waterfowl, and tell them to defeat Senate Bill 606 and House Bill 457. Leave controls on the application fertilizer to the governments closest to the problem – The Counties and the Cities!

Contact these Bill Sponsors

phone in - contact your representative

Representative Clay Ingram (R-Pensacola) 850/488-8278
Senator Greg Evers (R- Crestview) 850/487-5000

Senate Community Affairs Committee

Senator Michael S. "Mike" Bennett (R-Bradenton) 850/487-5078
Senator Jim Norman (R-Tampa) 850/487-5068
Senator Paula Dockery (R-Lakeland) 850/487-5040
Senator Anthony C. "Tony" Hill, Sr. (D-Jacksonville) 850/487-5024
Senator Garrett Richter (R-Naples) 850/487-5124
Senator Jeremy Ring (D-Margate) 850/487-5094
Senator Ronda Storms (R-Brandon) 850/487-5072
Senator John Thrasher (R-Jacksonville) 850/487-5030
Senator Stephen R. Wise (R-Jacksonville) 850/487-5027

House Community & Military Affairs sub-committee

Workman, Ritch (R-Melbourne) 850/488-9720
Hooper, Ed (R-Clearwater) 850/488-1540
Berman, Lori (D-Delray Beach) 850/488-1662
Brandes, Jeffrey (R-St. Petersburg) 850/488-5719
Caldwell, Matthew H. (R-Ft Myers) 850/488-1541
Campbell, Daphne D. (D-Miami Shores) 850/488-4233
Costello, Fredrick W. (R-Deland) 850/488-9873
Diaz, Jose Felix (R-Miami) 850/488-3616
Dorworth, Chris (R-Heathrow) 850/488-5843
Grant, James W. (R-Tampa) 850/488-0275
Julien, John Patrick (D-N. Miami Beach) 850/488-7088
Pafford, Mark S. (D-W. Palm Beach) 850/488-0175
Randolph, Scott (D-Orlando) 850/488-0660
Renuart, Ronald (R-Ponte Vedra Beach) 850/488-0001
Smith, Jimmie T. (R-Lecanto) 850/488-0805

WEIGH IN - YOUR LETTERS AND CALLS

March 17, 2011 -SOUTHWEST FLORIDA REGIONAL PLANNING COUNCIL

The Honorable Gary Aubuchon
Chair, Southwest Florida Legislative Delegation and Rules & Calendar Committee
422 The Capitol
402 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1300

Re: Opposition to State fertilizer rule preemption of local ordinances
House Bill 457 and Senate Bill 606

Dear Representative Aubuchon:

In 2009, a statewide Fertilizer Rule was adopted that provides a baseline for the regulation of residential use of fertilizer with a primary objective of reducing the water quality impacts associated with fertilizer. Unfortunately, this adopted rule was not stringent enough to protect water quality in South Florida, particularly in aquatic preserves, national estuaries, coastal estuarine waters and natural wetlands and waterbodies that have naturally low levels of nutrients. The existing rule provided opportunities to local governments to adopt stricter standards and grandfathered existing local government ordinances that provided better protections for the waters and economy of Southwest Florida.

The Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council (SWFRPC) understands that HB 457 and SB 606 include language that would preempt local governments’ authority to protect these valuable resources and the thousands of jobs associated with the tourism, fisheries, and development industries associated with excellent water quality, clean beaches and a healthy environment. Both HB 457 and SB 606 raise barriers to local governments’ ability to adopt fertilizer rules stricter than the State’s standard based on the scientifically established needs for protected waterbodies. This proposed legislation comes without funding to implement the weaker statewide standards. This proposed legislation creates financial burdens on the essential implementation of the Impaired Waters Rule, businesses and utilities that depend upon clean waters and local governments that are prepared to enforce their own standards. Also, the proposed legislation violates state standards deferring to home rule and do not grandfather prior adopted local government fertilizer rules.

Within the SWFRPC region, local governments consider the regulation of residential fertilizer to be one of the important tools available to them to meet water quality standards in water bodies that have Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) imposed.

Fertilizer regulations should acknowledge the impacts on water quality from excess nutrients due to the misapplication of fertilizer. Florida Department of Environmental
Protection (FDEP) and the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) are excellent sources for solid scientific information on these issues. Moreover, any improvements to the existing fertilizer regulations should be consistent with the SWFRPC’s Fertilizer Resolution, which has gone through an extensive scientific vetting process by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the University of Florida and the Institute of Food and Agricultural Services Cooperative Extension, and many local and statewide representatives of fertilizer businesses. ( http://www.swfrpc.org/content/LWCW/Fina ... esolution_ 031507.pdf)

For the State of Florida to even consider preempting local communities from establishing their own standards borders on infringement of local home rule. One statewide standard for fertilizer control will not work because every locality has its own unique water quality needs. Florida’s rules already acknowledge locality uniqueness in the TMDL process, where stormwater permitting requirements are very specific, focusing area by area, watershed by watershed, stream by stream and estuary by estuary to determine precise regulatory requirements to bring water quality levels, including nutrients, to an acceptable standard. Finally, the cost to prevent fertilizer pollution is far less than the funds that will be required to clean up our waters after the fact.
The Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council has unanimously voted to oppose any amendments to the existing fertilizer regulations that would pre-empt local governments’ oversight and regulation of fertilizer and thus impair the implementation of adopted local government fertilizer regulations and ordinances.

We live in a State surrounded by and dependent on water, where pristine beaches and estuaries are among our greatest assets. The health and economy of southwest Florida depends upon the quality of the waters where our citizens fish, recreate and live. Now is the time to address water quality as our priority, not to weaken the protections we have undertaken. Our environment, tourism, economy and our very way of life are at stake.

We are looking to your office for the leadership required to protect and support fertilizer regulations that improve, not impair, water quality and truly protect Florida.

Sincerely,
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA REGIONAL PLANNING COUNCIL
Charles Kiester
Chair

CK/JB/nlg