Good news from the oldest continuous lawmaking body in the New World, the Virginia General Assembly: Legislation that bars the Virginia sale of fertilizer containing phosphorus for use on established lawns has passed both the House of Delegates and state Senate and is on its way to the governor’s desk to be signed into law.
via cbf.typepad.com
OR...WILL IT?
wel, it's l not the bill virginia green industry proposed going in, but in the process, we got something. biggest problem is this bill has 'holes' you could drive a truckload of phosphorus thru if you are an average reader of N-P-K on fertilizer bags.
Not only did the General Assembly miss the opportunity to push everyone to #soil test before applying anything anywhere, they missed the opportunity to make some money for the Nutrient Management Education Fund (we proposed) by levying fees/fines on anyone applying P to maintain lawns without proof in form of a soil test within 3 years demonstrating that it is NEEDED!
Stay Tuned!
for my 16 March talk in the #Rappahannock River watershed:
"Is Grass Always the 'Green'-est Choice?
Beautiful, Sustainable Alternatives to Turfgrass for Healthy Gardens, Soils, Streams and Bay."
...or will it? please comment here and on the Daily Bay, Chesapeake Bay Foundation's 'blog.
It seems incredible that it costs from $20,000 to $30,000 per pound of phosphorus to take it out of the Bay and its watershed streams through local public works stormwater retrofits, but I've recently calculated the number based on info from reputable stormwater experts in MD at above $20,000 per pound and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation cites $30,000 a pound in this article but does not disclose/cite the source.
It costs very little and does SAVE $ to not use unnecessary phosphorus on any crop. You can't know it's unnecessary, however, without a soil test.
This is a classic #cradle-to-cradle design problem; old, non #systems thinking leads to cradle to grave, and in this case, the graveyards are the streams of the 6 state Chesapeake Bay watershed, arguably the most important estuarine system in the world, and finally, the Bay itself.
I heard a talk 2 years ago in RI by Nature Conservancy demonstrating that Little #Narragansett Bay waters are MORE impaired than the #ChesBay. So it behooves us all to make a difference upstream, at the source/s.
Please comment!
Posted by: virginia rockwell | 19 February 2011 at 09:43 AM