Cara Capp, of the nonprofit group Clean Water Action, says the county
is lax in protecting wetlands. Photo by James Capp
By Cheryl Blackerby
Cara Capp doesn’t understand why people spend money on fertilizers and pesticides that their grass doesn’t need, and then overwater so the toxic brew contaminates Florida’s waterways and kills fish, wildlife and coral reefs.
Save money, save our water, save our wildlife: Where’s the downside to cutting back on the chemicals? she wonders.
And Capp, Florida program coordinator for the nonprofit environmental group Clean Water Action, doesn’t understand why Palm Beach County commissioners seem so unconcerned about it. Why did they draft a fertilizer ordinance that did only the bare minimum of what the Florida Department of Environmental Protection forced them to do — basically prohibiting spraying within 3 feet of a waterway if you use a shield, or 10 feet if you don’t?
“Three feet? Don’t they understand the problem is runoff?” she asked, in exasperation.
Martin County, after all, went above and beyond what was required and adopted one of Clean Water Action’s protective measures — a ban on fertilizers during Florida’s rainy season from June 1 to Sept. 30.
The lawns in Martin County haven’t turned brown and blown away as naysayers predicted, she said. More than 50 other Florida towns and counties have adopted the rainy-season ban, including St. Petersburg, Tampa, Sarasota, Sanibel, Naples, Venice, Fort Myers and Clearwater, and Pinellas, Lee and Charlotte counties.
Clean Water Action, a national organization formed 40 years ago to support the federal Clean Water Act, moved its state office from Miami to Boca Raton two years ago when the group found itself working mostly in Palm Beach County on rock-mining issues and commercial farms’ pollution in the Everglades.
Capp drew applause from residents at the Oct. 30 County Commission meeting when she pointed out that commissioners got no input from environmental groups such as Clean Water Action or the Sierra Club before they drafted their ordinance restricting fertilizer use.
County Commission Chairwoman Shelley Vana admitted that the ordinance was a “baby step” and that commissioners would take another look at the ordinance in a year. Capp marked it on her calendar, but experience has taught her not to get her hopes up.
The Delray Beach resident, who got her master’s degree in urban planning and sustainable development at Florida Atlantic University, has worked for Clean Water Action for two years.
“We do a lot of work on Everglades issues. We’re concerned about urban fertilizer use and water conservation. We work on educating people about water quality. This is such a critical issue for our region.”
Many homeowners go to Home Depot and buy a bag of fertilizer without giving it much thought, she said. She spends a lot of time educating community groups and speaking to environmentalists.
“Nitrogen and phosphorus are naturally occurring, but when we get an overload in fertilizer, it’s much higher than we would find naturally,” she said. “That’s when we get toxic algae blooms, which can make people and livestock sick, and can be very toxic to marine life.”
Fertilizer and pesticide runoff has adversely affected inland waterways, rivers and both coasts, she said.
“We’ve had massive fish kills that shut down local fisheries. Contaminated waterbodies have huge economic impacts. I talked to a gentleman who runs a recreational fishing boat, and he took a family out on the St. Lucie River and came across a pod of dead dolphins [killed by toxins in the water]. Those people are not coming back to Florida.”
Her biggest hurdle, she says, is that homeowners don’t think the fertilizer they use on their lawn will do any great harm.
“But what someone puts on their back yard goes into the sewers and to the coral reefs, and all the way down to the Everglades. It’s all connected,” she said.
She wants people to know that over-fertilizing and watering more than once a week are not making their lawns any greener.
“They can save money and protect the environment,” she said. “Large amounts of fertilizer are not benefiting your grass whatsoever.”
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