Source: RISE
Washington - Plaintiffs including RISE and CropLife America filed suit Dec. 15 against the City of Madison and Dane County, Wis., demanding that an ordinance banning the display, sale or use of lawn fertilizers containing phosphorus be overturned. The suit states the ban violates state and federal preemption laws and, therefore, is illegal. This litigation marks the first time RISE stepped into the court room as a plaintiff to defend the rights of industry members.
“The city of Madison and Dane County have overstepped their boundaries,” said Allen James, president of RISE. “If we allow these bans to be instituted, we are completely ignoring preemption and what it stands for. Our products have been tested, retested, and registered by the federal and state governments for safety. As the industry representative, it is up to us to stand up for our companies.”
These ordinances would put undue burden on lawn care and landscape companies. Since the county’s ban differs from Madison’s, companies would be expected to know the specifics of each ordinance and in which jurisdiction their customer resides. State preemption, as exists in Wisconsin, prevents these local, confusing ordinances. The bans are slated to take affect on Jan. 1.
Proponents of the ordinance believe that the reduction in use of inorganic specialty fertilizers containing phosphorus in their community will help eliminate unwanted algae blooms in local lakes. While the plaintiffs agree that excess phosphorus contributes to the growth of noxious algae blooms in water; the lawsuit alludes to the bigger problem; the existence of Eurasian Water Milfoil in Dane County lakes which is an invasive weed that can reproduce by fragmentation. The county has been using mechanical harvesters for more than four decades in an effort to control these invasive weeds. Mechanical harvesting exacerbated the problem and helped create algae blooms.
“The city of Madison and Dane County believe that their ordinances will help alleviate the algae problem,” said Jim Skillen, manager of formulator issues for RISE. “It’s ironic that they are breaking federal and state law by instituting these bans, and by removing inorganic, phosphorus-based fertilizers from the marketplace, they’re going to increase the phosphorus load in local lakes over the long-term.”
According to research from the UW Turfgrass Research Center, healthy, dense grass fertilized with phosphorus limits runoff to almost nothing, whereas unfertilized turf can contribute 40 percent more phosphorus in runoff.