Posts Tagged sudbury

Looking for Lawn Fertilizer? Zero in on the Middle!

On March 30, 2013   /   Articles, Concerns, Media, Phosphorus  
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Effective April 1, a new municipal by-law restricts the use of lawn fertilizers containing phosphorus within Greater Sudbury. You may no longer apply general-use lawn fertilizers containing phosphorus. Check to make sure the middle number of the ingredient formula is “0”.

Phosphorus is still permitted in the following situations:

  • When starting a new lawn from sod or seed during the first growing season
  • When a test performed by an accredited soil testing service shows the soil’s phosphorus level is not sufficient to support a lawn
  • For agricultural application
  • On sod farms and golf courses

This by-law only relates to lawn fertilizers and does not affect other types of fertilizers, such as those used for flowers, vegetables, trees or shrubs. It does not restrict the sale of lawn fertilizers containing phosphorus – only their use. When applying any fertilizer, residents are reminded to avoid fertilizing when the ground is frozen, when it is raining or forecast to rain within 48 hours, or within 15 meters of any body of water. If fertilizer spills onto an impervious surface such as a walkway, it must be swept onto the soil to ensure absorption.

If you’re concerned about the health of your lawn, check the pH of your soil to make sure it isn’t too acidic. You can purchase a simple soil test kit from local garden centres. If necessary, adding crushed limestone can decrease the acidity of the soil, which makes the nutrients more readily available to your grass.

This by-law is intended to help protect the health of Greater Sudbury’s lakes. In a community full of lakes, all chemicals, additives and products we use in and around our homes eventually reach the water. While phosphorus is a natural element needed for plant growth, too much phosphorus in a water body can be detrimental to the aquatic environment.

For more information, please visit
www.greatersudbury.ca or call 3-1-1.

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Bylaw banning phosphates in fertilizer can only help – Point of View

On July 13, 2011   /   Articles, Concerns, Media, Phosphorus  
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By Pastor Rob Weatherby, Sudbury Star

The politics of enacting a bylaw banning the use of phosphates in lawn fertilizer in Greater Sudbury is becoming confrontational. It’s important that all sides –municipal officials and lake stewardship organizations — work together to tackle what is becoming a serious threat to our lakes.

Sometimes, a bylaw’s message is not so much the threat of punishment, but a signal of how seriously the city approaches a problem. There isn’t a compelling reason why Greater Sudbury should not take this route.

Phosphates exist naturally in the environment, and indeed are required for plant growth. But runoff of lawn pesticides — which end up in rivers and lakes –creates an oversupply, which can result in plumes of blue-green algae in lakes.

These algae plumes –pond scum, to the casual observer –are ugly business. Once they form in a lake, it’s almost impossible to get rid of them. The Sudbury and District Health Unit issues a warning that is never rescinded.

You can’t drink or swim in the water near a blue-green algae plume. You can’t cook in water that contains blue-green algae. You can’t boil the water because that could make it more toxic. You shouldn’t eat fish that swim in it. You can’t treat the water with disinfectant because that may make it more toxic, as well.

The appearance of blue-green algae in a lake will change the lifestyle of people who live nearby, and of those who use it for recreation.

And that is what we do in the North, we live by, and play in, our lakes.

The Greater Sudbury Watershed Alliance, noting that blue-green algae has appeared in 12 area lakes — including in Ramsey Lake, a source of drinking water –wants such a ban, which would be the first in Ontario.

But city staff prefer an education campaign and an initiative to work with retailers to stop selling products that contain phosphates. There isn’t much enthusiasm for compromise on either side.

A report by city staff says 95% of the volume of products sold as lawn fertilizer in Greater Sudbury no longer contain phosphates, so a ban is not needed. Retailers are open to the idea of getting rid of phosphate products, and public education campaigns have shown to be effective, the report says. A ban would increase the workload on an already taxed staff, and it would be almost impossible to enforce, the report says. As well, staff say it’s not clear that municipalities in Ontario even have the power to enact such a bylaw, given provincial and federal oversight.

Besides, the report says, municipalities that do have bylaws in place — mostly in the U.S. — enacted them in the early 2000s. Since then, the industry has had a “profound market shift” and is now working to reduce the use of phosphates. But Stephen Butcher, chair of the Long Lake Stewardship committee and co-chair of the Greater Sudbury Watershed Alliance, says companies only cut phosphates because laws made them do so, and that municipalities have the right to ban phosphates.

City council is expected to consider a proposal for a bylaw today that would ban the use of fertilizers that contain phosphates, although another option presented by staff is to avoid the bylaw and press ahead with a public education campaign.

No one disputes the presence of excessive phosphates due to runoff is bad, so let’s get the politics out of the way. There’s nothing to say a public education campaign can’t work hand-in-hand with a bylaw.

Together, the message given by the municipality known as the City of Lakes would be unequivocal.

Twitter: MacLeodSudbury

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