Florida counties facing pre-emtion fight with Pesticide/Fertilizer Industry --ACTION PLEASE!!

[AikidoSoul]

ACTION --contact your FL state rep -- Florida counties are trying to pass water quality legislation and are running into industry tactics intending to over-ride -- to pre-empt, any attempt at local legislation regarding use of these toxic products. Counties with direct experience of huge problems with ocean water quality are seeing a dire need to change their useages of pesticides and fertilizers -- but industry has RUSHED in at the last minute to stop ALL local action. Please read and there is a place below to link to your Florida legislator.

I hope you all remember that Duff Wilson (now with the N.Y. Times) wrote a 29 part series on how hazardous wastes are recycled into every type of fertilizer product, even those for home use. The Seattle Times ran tests on all brands and found only one brand free of them. All kinds of extremely hazardous heavy metals, industry waste (including from pesticide plants), low-level radioactive waste, and other hazardous materials -- are routinely recycled into fertilizers and are legally called "inert ingredients". This is a travesty. Duff Wilson was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for these articles. For more research you can link here... but do read on for the local Flordia action:

http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=2547772&date=19970703

Thank you -- AikiddoSoul


Hello Friends,

I urge you to read the article below, from today’s Sarasota Herald Tribune, on the fertilizer industry’s attempt at an end run around our shared public interest in clean water. The Florida Fertilizer and Agrichemical Association is attempting to strip cities and counties of their right to protect our water quality.

Your help is needed immediately to stop this attack on the rights of cities and counties. Speak up for our community rights. Protect them from this attempt to strip them of the ability to enact common sense landscape maintenance ordinances. Oppose the Fertilizer Preemption amendment to HB 1197 which will be heard today in the House Policy and Budget Council.

Cut & paste the message below voicing your opposition to this effort & email it to the sponsor of the amendment (Rep. Bryan Nelson) as well as to Members of the House Policy and Budget Council:

Thank you for your help and concern,

Healthy Gulf Coalition and Sierra Club




[e-mail]

or call his office at [phone]

House Policy and Budget Committee:

[phone]

Policy and Budget council

Ray Sansom, Chair

[e-mail]

Stan Mayfield, Vice Chair

[e-mail]

John Seiler, Democratic Ranking Member

[e-mail]

Keith Fitzgerald, District 69 Representative

[e-mail]




http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/sections/Committees/committeesdetail.aspx?SessionId=54&CommitteeId=2358


Also please click on the links below find your member of the Florida House and Senate and voice your concerns to them as well.

Florida Senate:

http://www.flsenate.gov/Legislators/index.cfm?Tab=legislators&CFID=34764277&CFTOKEN=90976947

Florida House

http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/sections/Representatives/representatives.aspx

Please cut and paste the message below:

Dear Honorable ...,

As the end of the 2007 legislative session draws near, I urge you to protect the public interest in clean water and oppose a proposed fertilizer preemption amendment to HB 1197 that seeks to strip cities and counties of their basic rights to maintain and improve water quality standards.

During the past year, cities and counties from different parts of Florida have dedicated considerable time and resources to develop common sense science based fertilizer policies that address their regional water quality concerns. Now in the final weeks of the legislative session, the Florida Fertilizer and Agrichemical Association has come forward with a misguided proposal to restrict the ability of cities and counties to engage in this type of constructive dialogue.

This issue is of critical concern in the state of Florida, as according to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the purchase and sale of fertilizers for residential use increased by 153,533.95 tons or 45% from 2003 to 2006.

This massive increase in the use of fertilizer on urban and suburban landscapes represents a serious threat to water quality in our state. While there are many sources of water pollution, mounting evidence points to nitrogen and phosphorus in fertilizer runoff as major contributors to the degradation of our water quality.

Any “one size fits all” policy for fertilizer management does not fit a state as large and diverse as Florida. It is in the public interest to craft and implement targeted local policies that respond to specific water quality concerns in each community. I view the proposed amendment being sought by the Florida Fertilizer and Agrichemical Association as a threat to both the efficacy of Florida’s government and to the long term health of our invaluable water resources. Please oppose this ill-conceived last minute attempt and do not permit this proposed amendment to be attached to any piece of legislation.

Sincerly,

(your name)

(your address)


Here is the link to a recent article on this topic (article excerpt below):

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070420/NEWS/704200488

CHEMICAL WARFARE

Communities want to control fertilizers
By PATRICK WHITTLE

[e-mail]


SARASOTA -- As communities around the state are close to enacting groundbreaking restrictions on the use of plant fertilizers, Florida's fertilizer industry is pushing for statewide legislation that could trump the local laws.

Fertilizer industry lobbyists say the legislation, introduced by the Florida Fertilizer & Agrichemical Association, would provide environmental protection for the entire state while avoiding the passage of scores of different local laws.

But environmentalists and officials in Sarasota County, which is one of several Florida localities in the process of crafting its own fertilizer law, say the industry's push is an end run on tougher local laws.

The industry is playing hardball to block laws that would impose new environmental restrictions on fertilizers, which some say can induce harmful algal blooms such as red tide, said County Commissioner Jon Thaxton.

The state legislation comes at a time when the fertilizer industry is asserting itself as a more influential player in state politics.

In 2004, fertilizer and pesticide interests gave Florida politicians and political parties more than $97,000 -- more than dairy farming, abortion rights and anti-gun control interests combined, according to the Montana-based National Institute on Money in State Politics. Fertilizer and pesticide interests donated at least twice as much money in 2006, the institute reported.

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[AikidoSoul]

1. Hellloooooooooo.... anyone alive in Florida?!

Why does this state forum exist? There seems to be very little happening here.