OLYMPIA - Farmers will know more about the fertilizers they are using if Gov. Gary Locke's proposed fertilizer-reform legislation gets a thumbs up from the Legislature this session.
The bill would require fertilizers containing recycled waste products that are manufactured or sold in this state to be labeled with information about the heavy metals they contain. Among those to be listed on labels would be lead, cadmium and arsenic, which have been associated with various human health effects depending on the level of exposure.
Heavy metals and dioxins find their way into fertilizers as tag-along toxics when some recycled waste products are added to fertilizers. And though only about five percent of the fertilizers used in this state contain these products, they are important to farmers because they contain essential micronutrients such as zinc.
Currently, some firms are recycling industrial by-products classified as solid waste or hazardous waste according to state regulations, but those products are allowed by law to be removed from "hazardous" classification if they are legitimately used in a product that has beneficial uses, such as fertilizer.
This is true nationwide, and now that the public - farmers included - is aware of this loophole, there is a push for tighter regulations on these waste-derived fertilizer products.
Gov. Locke's proposed legislation makes this state the first to take a legislative step in that direction, although about 10 other states are also considering fertilizer reform, as are several U.S. congressional members and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The consensus is that standardized national regulations are necessary since many fertilizers are sold and shipped across state lines.
Under Locke's bill, waste-derived fertilizers registered in this state would fall under the Department of Ecology's jurisdiction and would be required to meet the Canadian standards. Jim Jesernig, director of the Agriculture Department, said just about all of the fertilizers registered in this state already meet those standards. But he points out that by adopting Canadian standards, the state would be able to keep waste-derived fertilizers manufactured elsewhere that don't meet those standards from being sold in this state.
Greg Sorlie of the Department of Ecology said the Canadian standards will be adopted in the interim but that stricter standards will probably be adopted in the future.
In the meantime, state officials point out that no research has revealed there is any danger to consumers who eat crops grown with industrial-waste fertilizers.
"What we're trying to do here," said Sorlie, "is protect the environment and human health from a regulatory standpoint. We're trying to get a regulatory handle on something we don't currently have one on."
Locke's bill also calls for increased fertilizer testing and would set aside $400,000 for a three-year study pertaining to the path heavy metals take from factories to fertilizers to food.
Acknowledging the environmental community's concern about meaningful penalties, the bill would boost fines for violations from $1,000 to $27,500. Meanwhile, now that recent tests have revealed higher levels of dioxins than expected in some waste-derived fertilizers, Locke's bill is expected to be amended to include regulations regarding dioxins.
The fertilizer advisory group, which includes representatives from the fertilizer and ag industry, as well as from the environmental community, met this week to offer additional input on this issue.
Jesernig describes Locke's proposed bill, which was crafted over the past six months with the help of the departments of Ecology, Health, Agriculture, Labor & Industries, and the advisory group, as a rational approach that meets the need for labeling and standards.
But environmentalists, many of whom would prefer to see a total ban on the use of waste byproducts in fertilizers, are expressing their dismay about the bill's failure to come to grips with the issue.
"Business as usual, the status quo," said Erika Schreder, a member of the Washington Toxics Coalition and an alternate member of the fertilizer advisory committee. "Waste will continue to be used in fertilizers. The governor's bill doesn't take a look at anything but public perception. He wants people to think this issue has been handled, when in fact it hasn't." She laments the fact that the governor didn't pay closer attention to the group's concerns.
"We did present our concerns to him," she said, "but this is what we got: the continued poisoning of our farmland. "
But she holds out the hope that since many of the state legislators come from agricultural districts, they'll be concerned about what happens to farmland.
Carol Jolly, a top aide to Locke, said the Republicans who control the House and Senate agriculture committees have been noncommittal on the legislation. But she sees that they agreed to hold hearings early in the legislative session as a promising first step toward achieving fertilizer reform.
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