The advisory panel in Collier County, which includes Naples, urges prohibiting use within 10 feet of water bodies, banning phosphorus and imposing restrictions on nitrogen content and application. Golf courses following best management practices would be exempt.
The Environmental Advisory Council (EAC) of Florida’s Collier County, which encompasses the many golf courses, clubs and resorts in and around Naples, has voted unanimously to recommend, for a second time, a stricter law designed to limit fertilizer use, reports the Naples Daily News.
The advisory panel voted to recommend a similar law last year; the council sees the new restrictions as essential for preventing nutrients from running off land and causing algae blooms that can choke lakes and canals. But after last year’s recommendation, Collier County scaled back the proposal, after getting feedback from the state Department of Environmental Protection, the state Department of Agriculture and the University of Florida.
The proposed law will now again be sent to the Collier County Planning Commission for review, on its way to a possible May vote by county commissioners.
The Florida state legislature is already considering a law that would preempt local governments from adopting fertilizer laws more restrictive than a state model ordinance. The latest version of the law would grandfather stricter local laws, if they are adopted by July 1.
Under the EAC’s new proposal, homeowners and landscape companies would be banned from using fertilizer from June to September. Additionallly, any fertilizer that is used during permitted periods would be prohibited within 10 feet of a water body; could contain no phosphorus; would have to have at least 50 percent of its nitrogen content be slow-release; and no more than four pounds of nitrogen could be spread annually per 1,000 square feet.
The Collier County proposal would exempt new turf and plantings and would also exempt golf courses that follow best management practices outlined in state guidelines.
The state’s model ordinance, which Collier County has proposed mirroring, would ban fertilizing only when a tropical storm or hurricane is approaching, is less restrictive about how much fertilizer can be used, and allows specially equipped spreaders to get to within three feet of the water’s edge.
Critics of stricter rules, including the state agencies, say they are not based on science and could cause turf damage that would lead to more runoff. They also question how large a role fertilizers have in causing algae blooms compared to other causes, such as nitrogen that comes from grass clippings.
“All I ask is for science,” said horticulturist Mike Barrow, a manager for Greenscapes, a landscape maintenance company.
The Florida Golf Course Superintendents Association and its local chapter also opposed the stricter law during the debate before the latest EAC vote, while the Collier County Audubon Society and Audubon of Florida backed the proposal, along with representatives of the Island Walk neighborhood in North Naples, Fla., which said that algae blooms and nutrient pollution have been on the rise in that community’s lakes, creating the need for a $10 million cleanup.
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