After fish kill, Miami-Dade commission passes fertilizer ban for the summer rainy season
A new Miami-Dade law bans applying fertilizer on lawns and plants during the yearly rainy season as the county joins Miami and other municipalities across the state in targeting a source of run-off pollution linked to algae blooms and fish kills.
The legislation passed on a 12-1 vote Tuesday by Miami-Dade commissioners. It’s the first set of Miami-Dade regulations targeting water run-off after an August fish kill on Biscayne Bay raised alarms and sparked promises of action by elected leaders.
“Our bay needs our help,” Casey Dresbach, a representative of the
Miami Waterkeeper advocacy group, told commissioners. “We cannot have this happen again.”
The legislation by Commissioner Eileen Higgins exempts farms, nurseries and golf courses, meaning some of the largest sources of fertilizer pollution won’t see rules change. All fruit and vegetable gardens are exempt as well.
But for landscapers and people tending to backyard trees and plants, the ordinance passed Tuesday means a ban on using most fertilizers between May 15 and Oct. 31 each year.
Enforcement of the rules starts Aug. 1, and violations carry the possibility of a $500 fine. The rules apply inside city limits, as well as in unincorporated areas under the direct jurisdiction of Miami-Dade.
The cities of Coral Gables, Key Biscayne, Miami,
Miami Beach and North Bay Village already have rules in place that are similar to the new county law. Fort Lauderdale also has a similar law in place, as do municipalities on both sides of the Florida coast.
Even so, Miami-Dade’s new fertilizer law is probably the strictest in the state, according to Waterkeeper’s Dresbach.
Miami-Dade’s blackout period for fertilizers is longer than most laws in Florida (Miami, for example, set it for between June and September) and it imposes restrictions on fertilizer outside of the rainy season that are stricter than the rules elsewhere (Miami-Dade requires a higher standard for slow-release fertilizers than what Miami Beach requires).
Cities can have stricter rules than the county, so Miami Beach’s blackout period on fertilizer can still run through Nov. 1.
The Miami-Dade ordinance also includes commercial restrictions, including training requirements for companies that apply fertilizer and landscaping rules for golf courses built or redesigned after 2022. Golf courses also must submit quarterly reports to the county detailing their fertilizer use.
The law also bans most uses of fertilizers with phosphorous. Additionally, no fertilizer is allowed within 20 feet of storm drains.
“We need to decide how green we want our lawn to be if we want our bay to stay blue,” said Lee Hefty, head of the county’s Division of Environmental Resources Management, the agency charged with enforcing the new rules.
The lone vote against the legislation was Commissioner Kionne McGhee, who represents agricultural areas in South MiamiDade. “I disagree with the over-reach that we are seeing here,” he said.
“This prevents landscapers ... from using their fertilizers for nearly half of the year.”
Groups representing farmers and nurseries opposed the legislation as too strict and sweeping, arguing it will ban summer fertilizing of some plants, like turf grasses, that don’t increase nutrients in groundwater.
“Whether misunderstood by well-intentioned individuals, or outright manipulated by those with agendas, low-hanging fertilizer bans are a reflection of biased politics rather than sound science,” Ben Bolusky, head of the Florida Nursery, Growers, and Landscape
Association, wrote in a Monday email to McGhee.
The Dade County Farm Bureau also opposed the ordinance, warning it would hurt the landscaping industry, which plays a significant role in MiamiDade agriculture.
“Due to our warm climate, this is an industry that is actively planting year-round,” Sal Finocchiaro and Heather Moehling, bureau president and secretary, respectively, wrote in a letter to commissioners on Monday.
The letter recommended commissioners create fertilizer rules that apply only to areas near Biscayne Bay and other revisions “that do not destroy an entire industry.”
The ordinance includes a requirement for an educational campaign on the environmental downside of fertilizer use and on native plants and trees that don’t need fertilizer to grow in Florida.
“We have so much work to do to educate people on the connection between fertilizer during the rainy season and the run-off into the bay,” Higgins said. “The onus is on us to explain the importance of this.”