INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — An in-depth survey conducted by Indian River County staff shows that many local big-box and hardware stores are not making it very easy for homeowners to follow new laws passed by local governments to protect the Indian River Lagoon from nutrient runoff.
Alexis Thomas, Indian River County’s stormwater educator and fertilizer enforcement officer, on April 3 reported her findings from examining fertilizer products for sale and talking to managers at nine local stores where residents would shop for lawn and landscape fertilizers.
“After even a quick examination, it was apparent that the local retail stores were not ready for this ordinance and have not ordered enough product in compliance for the amount of people they should be targeting,” Thomas wrote in her memo to the Board.
Though there are a list of restrictions that dictate how, when, where and under what conditions fertilizer can be used to best prevent nutrients running off into the lagoon, the two product-based restrictions are:
– Beginning June 1, 2014, fertilizer with nitrogen shall contain at least 50 percent slow release nitrogen.
– No phosphorous shall be used without the proper soil or plant tissue deficiency test (effective Oct. 1, 2013).
So to be compliant, a fertilizer product must be free of phosphorus and must contain at least 50 percent slow-release nitrogen, as opposed to the less expensive form of nitrogen that is immediately released onto the turf.
“She went to all of the major retail stores, looked at every one of the fertilizer products, took a picture of each one of the labels and was able to compile a list of those fertilizer products that will be in compliance with our ordinance and those that will not,” Chairman Peter O’Bryan said.
Thomas found that five of the 14 products sold by Lowe’s met the requirements, as did zero of the dozen products sold by Home Depot, three or four of the eight products sold by Wal-Mart (depending upon the store) and one of the nine products sold by Ace Hardware. Wal-Mart, Thomas said, did the best job of promoting the compliant products at prominent display locations in the store.
Personnel in smaller nurseries such as Rock City and Busy Bee were found to be more knowledgeable about the fertilizer ordinance, but did not have adequate compliant products on the shelves.
Thomas said managers told her they were ordering compliant products but that those products were difficult to find. As a follow-up, Thomas delivered packets of information, including a list of compliant products, to all the stores.
O’Bryan said that the results reveal that, though he thinks Thomas is “doing a great job” from an educational point of view, the County must do a much better with regard to promoting the products that do comply with the county’s ordinance.
“I think it’s a little disappointing right now that Home Depot has no compliant products,” Commissioner Bob Solari.
The County will be putting these results on its dedicated fertilizer ordinance web page and including a list of products that do comply with the ordinance, along with the name of the retailer that was found to have that product in stock.
The issue of which fertilizer to buy becomes somewhat moot over the summer, however, and a whole new challenge of spreading awareness arises on June 1 — educating homeowners about the total blackout on fertilizing during the rainy season of June 1 to Sept. 30.
To help spread the word about the black-out period, the Board also voted to purchase 2,000 bumper stickers, piggy-backing on an effort by the Indian River Neighborhood Association, which is expecting a delivery of 1,000 bumper stickers saying, “Save Our Lagoon, No Fertilizer June 1 to Sept. 30” and listing the County website.
