Saving the bay one lawn at a time?
Could federal regulation of lawn fertilizers be on the way?
Obama administration officials are tightlipped about the laundry list of ideas they've come up with for jump-starting the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay. Draft reports are due to be released on Wednesday -- the first step in fulfilling President Obama's May executive order directing federal agencies to take the lead in pushing for more progress in the long-running bay cleanup.
One Environmental Protection Agency official did hint last week, though, that rules on lawn care in the bay region may be among the ideas floated.
Speaking to a lunchtime gathering of lawyers in Washington, J. Charles Fox, special adviser on the bay to EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, pointed out that polluted stormwater runoff from urban and suburban areas is an increasing threat to the bay.
Then Fox brought up home use of lawn fertilizers, whether do-it-yourself applications of products bought from Home Depot or Lowe’s or lawn-care services.
"We are going to have to look at this," he said, adding that "today we have more turf grass in the watershed than we do corn."
A few years back, bay area states got fertlizer manufacturers voluntarily to agree to halve the amount of phosphorus used in lawn-care products in the region. But the regulatory screws have tightened even more here in Maryland. The city of Annapolis this year banned lawn fertlizers containing phosphorus, while the General Assembly barred the sale of anything but low-phosphorus fertilizer for use on lawns by April 2011. Lawn care sevices and lawn startups were exempted from the state decree, however.
Fox also suggested, without going into specifics, that there would be proposals for curtailing farm pollution. Though farmers have reduced runoff of chemical fertilizers and animal manure, Fox said, agriculture remains in the crosshairs because it is still the source of roughly half the nutrients and sediment fouling the bay.
The EPA adviser's remarks came during a panel discussion co-sponsored by the Environmental Law Institute and the District of Columbia bar association. At a "town hall" meeting last month with environmentalists in Annapolis, Fox said that "we have to look at game-changing solutions," since the bay has shown only modest improvement despite billions spent on cleanup over the past 26 years.
Environmentalists and others are anxious to see if the feds do propose truly dramatic changes from the lagging status quo. Roy Hoagland, a vice president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, called the draft reports due tomorrow "the first test" of the Obama administration's commitment to restoring the bay.
Those ideas, once floated, are to be boiled down into a proposed federal bay cleanup strategy by December, which would be formally adopted in May after the public has an opportunity to comment on it. For background on the reports, go here.
Comments
I would love to see a federal and local push for homeowners to incorporate native plants, shrubs, trees, and ornamental grasses instead of traditional lawns. This would result in no mowing of grass (no noise), no pesticides, and a creation of habitat.
Posted by: NotableM | September 8, 2009 3:05 PM
Why would lawn care services be exempt? That is pointless.
Does fertilizer without phosphorus work as good? Is it more expensive? I imagine both may be true. Anyone care to fill me in?
Posted by: bdc | September 8, 2009 10:45 PM
The challenge of course is how do we get each home/yard owner to change behavior. In addition to stopping the use of fertilizers, we each need to stop the use of pesticides and create rain gardens to help storm waters filter into the ground and not wash off into streams, lakes and the Bay.
Ned Tillman
Author of The Chesapeake Watershed
Posted by: Ned Tillman | September 9, 2009 7:21 AM
I quit using fertilizer on my lawn about 5 years ago and it looks fine to me. Watering the lawn was such a hit an miss effort struggling with the sprinkler, I quit that too, especially when I realized I was watering the lawn with drinking water! Now, I use a bucket to water my new dogwood and that's it. Life is easier and less expensive this way, so I got rid of more lawn in favor of a mulched garden. Master Gardeners of Howard County give free advice.
Posted by: Betsy Singer | September 9, 2009 2:20 PM
Fertilizer companies need to make more use of fertilizers with nitrogen that biodegrades instead of being water soluble. Most of today's fertilizers dissolve heavily with a good rain, meaning much of it washes off into rivers instead of seeping into lawns where it's desired. Fertilizers such as IBDU (used in flooded rice fields) must biodegrade to release nitrogen, so they can't overfertilize all at once just because of a hard rain. You also don't have to apply them as often, so it's less work. Twice the price, half as many applications means it may actually be saving time/money. GreenView and Super Turf Assurance are products I've used with IBDU.
Posted by: Steve | September 10, 2009 2:50 PM