Yanking phosphorus

Published on January 11, 2010

In the latest effort to stop eutrophication of state waterways, the Washington legislature takes up bills to limit phosphorus content in lawn fertilizer.

With support from environmental organizations and key industries with a stake in surface water quality, the Washington legislature will take up legislation that would tightly restrict the use of phosphorus in lawn fertilizer. Near identical bills were introduced today (Monday) in the state senate and house that, if passed, would put in place lawn fertilizer restrictions a year from now, in January 2011. The Senate bill is co-sponsored by Spokane senators Chris Marr and Lisa Brown, and the House bill is co-sponsored by Spokane Rep. Timm Ormsby.

“We really appreciate Senators Brown and Marr and Representative Ormsby for taking the lead on this,” said Spokane Riverkeeper Rick Eichstaedt. “The legislation offers a common sense approach to attacking non-point source phosphorous pollution. The science tells us that this can have significant benefits to water quality in places like Lake Spokane that suffer from low dissolved oxygen and toxic algae blooms. This approach has been used in a number of jurisdictions including King County and the states of Michigan and Minnesota. The prime mover for the bill has been the Washington Lake Protection Association and the development of the bill has involved coordination with a broad range of interested parties, including Avista, the City of Spokane and Inland Empire Paper Company.”

Under terms of both bills people would be barred from applying fertilizer’s containing more than .67 percent phosphate by weight or, for liquid fertilizer, “at a rate not greater than .3 pounds per thousand square feet of turf.”

The bill does include some exceptions that would relax the phosphate limits where:

(1) Laboratory tests show phosphorous at levels “insufficient to support healthy turf growth,

(2) New seed and sod for turf require additional phosphorus during a first growing season,

(3) For golf courses using application standards approved by the Department of Ecology.

The draft bills explain that turf fertilizers “containing now or very low amounts of phosphorous are readily available” and that maintaining established turf does not depend “upon the addition of phosphorous fertilizers.”

“While significant reductions of phosphorus from laundry detergent and dishwashing detergent have been achieved,” the bills read, “similar progress in reducing phosphorus from turf fertilizer has not been accomplished.”