INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Despite a presentation on the dangers of too much fertilizer by students from Sebastian River Middle School students, the Board of County Commissioners held firm in its stand to not enact regulations on fertilizer.
The students Tuesday presented their project, “Mission Possible: Lagoon Rescue,” to the Board of County Commissioners. Taking turns at the podium, the seventh-graders outlined the problem of fertilizer pollution in the Indian River Lagoon their project addresses, and proposed a solution that includes government fertilizer regulation.
“People are over fertilizing their lawns by 500 percent,” students told the commissioners. “The excess fertilizer runs off into the lagoon where it kills animals and sea grass and causes algae blooms.”
Students cited the death of more than 80 dolphins over a two-year period and last year’s catastrophic algae bloom in the lagoon as evidence of need for regulation.
Commissioners were universal in the praise for the students’ hard work and civic-mindedness, but did not propose any action to protect the lagoon. Commissioners generally acknowledge the lagoon is polluted and deteriorating, but have refused to pass a fertilizer regulation ordinance to protect it and help it recover.
They say they are waiting for comprehensive state-wide regulation from Tallahassee that would avoid the problem of rules that vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and that in the meantime, education is more effective than regulation.
In fact, the state has already acted by issuing a model fertilizer regulation ordinance that would require applicators to receive training in how to handle poisonous chemicals, mandate low or no-phosphorus fertilizers with slow release nitrogen, and ban the application of fertilizer during the rainy season when storms wash the chemicals directly into the lagoon.
The model is designed to avoid the hodgepodge of regulations commissioner say they fear and versions of it have been successfully adopted by a number of counties and cities, including most recently Indian River Shores. The Sebastian City Council is expected to pass the model ordinance later this month.
The local ordinances have been effective in reducing poisonous runoff into Florida waters while not harming commercial interests or reducing the greenness of lawns, parks and golf courses, according to numerous scientists, government official and lawn care professionals.
Commissioner Joe Fletcher asked the students if they were familiar with regulations passed in neighboring communities, and if they thought it sufficient to educate the public and hope for compliance with proper fertilizer use or if rules are needed.
The students said that, based on their research, education alone does not work as well as education combined with regulation.
Commissioner Bob Solari informed students of several county projects that help clean up a small portion of the water that enters the lagoon and cross-examined them about their true intentions, asking if they really wanted regulation or if they actually wanted the lagoon cleaned up by the best method.
He noted their presentation had not taken into account his objections to regulation and ended by warning them against the dangers of totalitarianism.
Solari has been the commissioner most adamantly opposed to passing the state model ordinance to protect the lagoon. He has said repeatedly that government regulation is corrosive and destructive of human liberty and that the county should rely on voluntary compliance to deal with the looming ecological disaster in the lagoon.
