Environmentalists worry DeSantis will usurp home rule over local fertilizer ordinances

When Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the Florida budget in June, he called it "the strongest environmental budget we've ever had." But the budget bans local governments from enacting new fertilizer ordinances or making existing ones stricter to protect their waterways for one year.

Environmentalists worry the state eventually will replace city and county ordinances with its weaker regulations.

The state will evaluate the effectiveness of local ordinances that ban fertilizer use in the summer rainy season, when it can wash off into waterways and feed algae blooms. The Legislature paid the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) $250,000 to study the issue and produce a report by Dec. 31.

The TruGreen lawn care company hired lobbyist and former House Speaker Steve Crisafulli to push the moratorium, according to nonprofit news site Florida Phoenix.

The Legislature added it to the proposed budget on a Sunday night before the last week of the March-May session and gave no notice or chance for public input, said Friends of the Everglades Executive Director Eve Samples. In a May 11 letter to DeSantis, 55 environmental organizations implored him to veto the “sneak attack.”

“There will be pressure from the fertilizer industry," Samples said. "That [IFAS] study will be used to try to unravel some of the existing fertilizer ordinances.”

Among the 35 counties that have fertilizer ordinances, 18 have summer bans, including the five counties containing the Indian River Lagoon: Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River, Brevard and Volusia. Most of the 32 counties that don't have ordinances are in the Panhandle, North Florida and around Lake Okeechobee, 33% of which is covered in a toxic algae bloom that will pollute the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon if excess water is released east.

DeSantis should have vetoed the moratorium, said Sierra Club spokesperson Cris Costello, who has been working with the Florida Springs Council to get more North Florida counties to enact fertilizer ordinances.

“If he has any chance of claiming that he is for water quality, he blew it by not doing that because that's the one thing around the state that is not partisan,” Costello said.

Senate Environment and Natural Resources Chair Sen. Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford, defended the moratorium. He is funded by Crisafulli and U.S. Sugar Corp., TCPalm found.

“This simply says that let's rely on science,” Brodeur said in a Senate session. “It's only one year waiting for that study to be published.”

IFAS will study fertilizer ordinances

Environmentalists are concerned IFAS is conducting the study, and that previous fertilizer studies are contradictory. Scientists don't agree on how much fertilizers and septic tanks affect waterways, and which is worse — or if that matters. Some aren't sure they can even measure that accurately.

“It is important to note that existing studies ... are lacking,” said Michael Dukes, director of the IFAS Center for Land Use Efficiency, which will be conducting the study.

A Florida Department of Environmental Protection study found an increase in fertilizer filtering through soil into groundwater during winter and spring, but not during summer when there are bans; however, it didn’t study rain washing fertilizer into waterways.

An IFAS study says lakes have less pollution thanks to fertilizer ordinances, but a Florida Atlantic University study says they aren’t enough to reduce pollution and algae blooms in the Indian River Lagoon. FAU researcher Brian Lapointe blames septic tanks as the main culprit, but in a 2016 TCPalm article, he acknowledged fertilizer runoff causes Lake O algae blooms that pollute the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon.

“There are some disappointing features to both the FAU and UF-IFAS studies that seem to be serving a purpose beyond straight research,” said Indian Riverkeeper Jim Moir. “They seek to discredit proposals that reduce agricultural responsibility for fertilizer-based nutrient inputs, rather than attempting to reduce all surplus nutrient inputs.”

IFAS lobbyist Mary Ann Hooks dismissed critics' concerns about the reliability of a study conducted by researchers funded by the fertilizer and turfgrass industries.

“The source of money doesn't change the samples,” Hooks said. “We’re Switzerland. We're not to answer the questions for the environmentalists or the homeowner or agriculture. Essentially, the numbers are the numbers.”

Local governments want home rule over fertilizer ordinances

DEP’s ordinance is “worthless,” Costello said, citing its lack of a summer ban. It only prohibits fertilizer use 24 hours before 2 inches of rainfall are forecast.

“The backbone of all urban fertilizer management is the rainy season blackout period,” she said. “It is the cheapest, easiest way to stop urban pollution at the source.”

Martin County opposes a “one-size-fits-all” statewide ordinance, said Ecosystems Restoration Manager John Maehl. Martin is among the counties that ban fertilizer within 25 feet of a waterway. DEP's buffer is only 10 feet.

“My concern would be that when this is over, that they would have preserved some flexibility for local governments to deal with acute recommendations,” Maehl said. “We believe that the local (elected officials) are best poised to make good decisions for the constituents with easy access to them.”

"It's the lake, stupid:" Scientists blame Lake O discharges over septic tanks

Summer fertilizer bans: Treasure Coast bans begin June 1. Here's what you need to know

In 2010, Sewall’s Point was the first Florida east-coast government to enact a fertilizer ordinance. It’s still among the strictest, with a six-month summer ban that starts June 1 and ends Nov. 30, instead of the more common four-month ban that ends Sept. 30. Stuart soon followed suit.

The state should be curbing fertilizer use, not ordinances, said Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch, a former South Florida Water Management District board member and former Sewall’s Point mayor who fought for the town's ordinance.

Only the Legislature can ban summer fertilizer sales and force farms to use best management practices, she said.

“It seems like the page (the state) wants us to be on is the page where there are fewer restrictions, and fertilizer ordinances don’t work," she said. "If they’re not working, it’s because the state is not helping us.”

Katie Delk is an environmental reporter for TCPalm. Contact her at katie.delk@tcpalm.com or 772-408-5301. Check for updates at @katie_delk.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Will DeSantis usurp fertilizer ordinances that curb water pollution?