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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDocumentation_Environmental Advisory Committee_Tab 05_1/10/2024 Agenda Item #5. Environmental Advisory Committee (EAC) STAFF MEMO Meeting: Environmental Advisory Committee (EAC) - Jan 10 2024 Staff Contact: Jessica Namath,Chair Department: Environmental Advisory Committee Legislative Priorities related to Environmental Issues and Home Rule. The Florida Legislative Session begins January 9, 2024 and ends on March 8, 2024. The Village of Tequesta adopts a Legislative Agenda to seek out each year to support or oppose Bills that may be considered for adoption. EAC will consider making a recommendation for additional legislative priorities to add to the approved Village of Tequesta Legislative Agenda. - Home Rule in Regards to Fertilizer Ordinance. This document and any attachments may be reproduced upon request in an alternative format by completing our Accessibility Feedback Form, sending an e-mail to the Village Clerk or calling 561- 768-0443. BUDGET • • BUDGET AMOUNT N/A AMOUNT AVAILABLE N/A EXPENDITURE AMOUNT: N/A FUNDING SOURCES: N/A IS THIS A PIGGYBACK: ❑ Yes ❑ N/A DID YOU OBTAIN 3 QUOTES? ❑ Yes ❑ N/A COMMENTS/EXPLANATION ON SELECTIONN/A Urban Fertilizer Ordinance History and Factsheet 2007-2023 Two Pager Version FINAL (1) Page 28 of 31 Agenda Item #5. Urban Fertilizer Ordinance History and Background: 2007-2023 Over the last sixteen years, eighteen counties and well over 100 municipalities have adopted "strong" ordinances that include strict, no exemption, rainy season application bans, and a number of other protective provisions related to the content and application rate of fertilizer application. The first county ordinance was adopted in Sarasota in 2007 and the latest strict rainy season ban ordinance was adopted in Hernando County in 2023. Strict urban fertilizer management is a non-partisan issue: These strong ordinances have been embraced because local economies depend on clean water, and strict urban fertilizer management is the cheapest, easiest way to stop pollution at its source. In 2008, the FLORIDA CONSUMER FERTILIZER TASK FORCE determined that local governments should retain the right to regulate urban fertilizer. Florida-based fertilizer manufacturers have led the way in providing summer-safe products and landscape managers across the state have implemented new application schedules. Tackling the major sources of nutrient pollution (agricultural and wastewater) in most watersheds is more onerous and expensive, but for many water bodies, reducing the portion of pollution related to urban fertilizer can get them under the algae bloom tipping point. The non-partisan effort to get strong ordinances adopted and protected has brought local governments, businesses, and civic and environmental organizations together across the state to fight preemption of local control of urban fertilizer since 2007. The science behind Florida's many strong local ordinances is voluminous: Each and every county that has adopted a strong ordinance since 2007, and especially since 2009, has a public record of all of the science it used to determine the viability of a strong ordinance in their respective watershed. In 2009, Florida Statute (403.9337) mandated that each ordinance stronger than the FDEP Model Ordinance be "science-based, and economically and technically feasible." Subsequent to the implementation of that statute, the FDEP provided the floor (weakest allowable) provisions for urban fertilizer ordinances in the state in the form of the FDEP Model Ordinance. 0 ' S :, For hyperlinks and more scan the QR code: 0 Page 29 of 31 Agenda Item #5. Strict rainy season ban ordinances are a set of well-established and accepted practices through which local governments can address and reduce pollution borne by local stormwater runoff to springs, rivers, lakes, estuaries, and other surface and groundwater resources. In 2014, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) updated the labeling requirements for DIY bags of turf fertilizer in the state to include the following language: "Check with your county or city government to determine if there are local regulations for fertilizer use." After close to 17 years of local urban fertilizer control efforts, the only state preemption of local government regulation of the type and timing of nitrogen and phosphorus application came in May 2023, when a year-long prohibition of new rainy season ban ordinances, and funding for an IFAS "evaluation" of existing ordinances, were inserted into the budget and budget implementing bill in the last moments of the legislative session. Over those 17 years, WAS has proved itself far from impartial. Since 2007, IFAS has been on record at many, if not most, of the county and municipal-level urban fertilizer ordinance public meetings speaking out against rainy season application bans. IFAS has also been on the record in presenting its opposition to home rule to legislative committees. Since IFAS has contradicted and mischaracterized its own research and recommendations by promoting state preemption since 2007, and has displayed very close ties to the turfgrass and agrochemical industries, IFAS long ago lost the trust of local governments, IFAS cannot provide an unbiased evaluation. If the IFAS "evaluation" becomes the basis of proposed legislation in 2024 to preempt all existing urban fertilizer ordinances, the state of Florida, with all of its current water quality crises, would lose 18 county-level and at least 111 city-level strong urban fertilizer ordinances. The strange truth is that ALL of "strong" urban fertilizer ordinance provisions come directly from FDEP and OF-IFAS publications. For this reason, local governments have embraced those WAS science-based recommendations and ignored the contradictory rhetoric. The bottom line is that this new preemption effort is contrary to both a voluminous amount of science and common sense. It doesn't matter who applies fertilizer during the rainy season, there are no special tricks or training that can keep the fertilizer on the lawn during Florida's summer downpours. Our goal between now and the 2024 legislative session is to produce as much support as possible for local strong urban fertilizer ordinances, and the best messengers are always local governments. 0 0 For hyperlinks and more scan the QR code: f31