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Thursday, January 05, 2012

Environment - "Deadline nears for fertilizer rule comment"

Eric Weddle has the story in the Lafayette Journal Courier.

Note that because the law has changed so that it is the state chemist, not IDEM, adopting rules, the rulemaking process is not the same as that required for IDEM rules. From the story:

The public comment period for a new fertilizer regulation that will affect farmers statewide ends this weekend.

Under the rule, farmers or other fertilizer applicators would have guidelines of how and where they can spread manure and be required to keep certain records.

The rule is the result of a change in law last year allowing the state chemist to adopt rules that will help keep fertilizer from contaminating water.

Matt Pearson, of the Office of Indiana State Chemist at Purdue University, said the proposed rules are intended to make clear the requirements for staging, setback and application of fertilizer statewide.

The office at Purdue will consider the comments before the rule is forwarded to the attorney general's office and then Gov. Mitch Daniels for approval.

The proposed rule specifies how fertilizer can be safely stored on farms until its use -- called staging -- and how far from waterways and wells it can be applied and under what conditions, such as frozen or snow-covered ground.

As part of the proposal, certain types of fertilizer would require 500-foot setbacks from public water supply wells.

The rule also would require distributors and applicators of inorganic and organic fertilizer to keep records on how much and where fertilizer was spread.

More info via the State Chemist website.

Here is a long list of ILB entries involving the State Chemist.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 5, 2012 10:22 AM
Posted to Environment