Bonita leaders urge commissioners to create ordinance for harmful fertilizers

Though Lake Okeechobee takes most of the blame, water releases from the huge lake are not solely at fault for the ongoing destruction of local estuaries.

There is no argument that polluted water flowing down the Caloosahatchee River from Lake Okeechobee has a lot to do with the problem, scientists say. But on average, only 50 percent of the water in the river comes from the lake, said Kurt Harclerode, spokesman for the South Florida Water Management District.

The other 50 percent comes from local basin runoff, meaning water flowing from agricultural and urban areas within the river basin. And with farmers and homeowners pouring fertilizers onto their lands and an abundance of septic tanks in the area, the local basin runoff is far from pristine, Harclerode said.

So as local leaders pressure the water management district and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to solve the problem, some are also looking for changes within their own backyards.

At the direction of the Bonita Springs City Council, Mayor Jay Arend recently sent a letter to Lee County commissioners urging them to adopt an ordinance that would limit the sale of domestic fertilizer in local stores to a type that is less harmful to the environment.

"It's just one way we as average citizens can work to improve our waterways," Arend said. "It's got to start somewhere."

Such an ordinance should only allow the domestic sale of slow-release manufactured fertilizer, Arend said.

The problem with typical fertilizer is that its three main ingredients, nitrogen, phosphorous and potash, dissolve quickly after they contact water. Grass and plants can't absorb all the nutrients and they end up in local waterways, where many scientists believe they fuel algae blooms and other plant growth, Arend said.

"The algae bloom that we're experiencing in the Gulf today, there is pretty strong evidence that it is caused by excessive nitrogen," Arend said.

A slow-release fertilizer doesn't dissolve instantly, giving plants more time to absorb the chemicals.

For homeowners, the difference in cost between the two types of fertilizer is minimal, maybe a dollar or so per bag, Arend said.

Other counties in Florida have already adopted similar ordinances, he said.

Lee County promotes the use of slow-release fertilizers in its policy plans, said Wayne Daltry, director of smart growth. But the extent to which the county can regulate the use of fertilizers is not clear, he said.

Lee County Commissioner Tammy Hall said she plans to meet with the county's director of natural resources to determine what the county is doing and what it can do.

"We would like to look at a more aggressive approach," Hall said. "This is about what each of us can do individually to help improve our water quality."

Cleaning up Lee County's backyard would give local leaders more leverage when arguing with state and federal officials that more must be done to clean Lake Okeechobee, Hall said.

"We have to be proactive and show that we take our own issues seriously," Hall said. "We are going to be as hard on ourselves as we are on them."