22-128 Fertilizer Awareness Month resolution

33:59All right, the next resolution is in uh regards to fertilizer awareness month. If you're here for this resolution, please step up to the podium.

34:22Okay, I'll go ahead and read the resolution. Resolution number 22-128. A resolution by the Board of County Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, declaring May as fertilizer awareness month in Pasco County. Whereas many local bodies of water are experiencing raised nitrate levels, runoff from residential fertilizers can contribute to this change in water quality. And whereas when fertilizer is properly If properly applied to a lawn, the introduced nitrogen is absorbed. However, if fertilizer is incorrectly applied,

34:52it can run off into local waters, lowering the water quality and threatening the ecosystems that depend on the water source. Enrest, when it rains, excess nitrogen and phosphorus flows into our stormwater systems and eventually our local bodies of water. The excess amounts of these chemicals can cause allergy blooms, lowering the oxygen level in the water and creating a substantial risk to aquatic life. NRAS residential fertilizer is a significant source of nitrogen in the Tamba

35:23Bay area accounting for about twenty percent of the nitrogen carried to in-storm water systems. ANRAS, PASCO County Adopted a Fertilizer Ordinance which regulates the application of fertilizer within the county. ANRAS, the Tampa Bay area receives sixty percent of its average annual rainfall between June 1st and September 30th. This is when there is the greatest potential for fertilizer runoff. And RASTampa Bay Water approved a $10,000 grant for Keep Pasco Beautiful in conjunction

35:54with the Pasco County Government. This grant funded a fertilizer education and outreach program in Pasco County to protect the region's local water sources, and whereas it is essential to educate the people of Pasco County on how to maintain a healthy lawn while only using fertilizers when safe and necessary. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Board of County Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, that said board hereby declares May as Fertilizer Awareness Month in Pasco County and encourages all citizens of Pasco County to join in

36:24efforts to prevent n nutrient. Water? pollution caused by improper fertilizer use. Dunner resolved in regular session with a quorum president voting the seventeenth day of May twenty twenty two.

36:36Move approval. Second.

36:37All

36:38in

36:38favor?

36:38Aye. Aye.

36:40Um well welcome. If you wanna say anything, please do and then Commissioner Oriano's gonna come down and give you your Your stuff.

36:46Okay. First of all, thank you guys so much for giving us this resolution on behalf of Keep Pasco Beautiful. We really appreciate our partnership with you all and value it. We and our board of directors was horrified as I know many people were when last year we had eleven hundred manatees that died. We know that they died because they were starving to death because the seagrass was polluted. So we decided to look at our area of what we could do from Pasco County's perspective to save our chubby mermaids

37:17that we all love and adore. And we're super excited to learn that we actually have really good seagrass in Pasco County. It's doing well, it's thriving. So what we decided to do was focus on maintaining that and keeping that. And improper fertilizer use, especially at the residential level, is a great. Threat to that. We've seen what's happened on the east coast with the algae blooms and the Indian River Lagoon. So we love Pasco County and the paradise that it is, and this is to educate people on what they can do to

37:47have a positive impact on our environment. So thank you all so much for helping us spread the word.

37:52Yeah and we need your name and right name

37:54for

37:55the record. I don't think we need an address, right? No, just a name.

37:58Uh Kristen King, Key Pasco Beautiful Coordinator. And this is Alicia Hacker, she's our past president for Key Pasco Beautiful. And Aki is our intern from USF Coach of Patel.

38:08Madam Chairman I just want to ask a question if I could. Um so t you talked about the manatees. What about other sea life? You know, I spent a lot of time myself on the water and I mean quite I'm on the water quite often uh in West Pasco, around Port Ritchie and Hudson and New Port Richey those areas as well. And um it's amazing, like you said, the sea life. Recently on our last trip out with my family, we were doing some fishing and stuff I can't tell you how many sea turtles we saw out there swimming. There was a m I never knew there was that many sea turtles swimming around Pasco

38:39County. I mean, they were all over the place. More than I saw In a long time. We actually saw a tiger shark.

38:45Oh

38:45a tiger shark.

38:46Wow.

38:47Right out of Gulf Harbors.

38:48Oh geez.

38:49Yeah, right by the right No, right right by the by the n on the north side of the um North Channel. Oh wow by those rocks there. It was about six foot. So saw a hammerhead out there not too long ago too. Big one, about ten, twelve foot swimming around. So cool l yeah, like you said the s the seagrass looks like it's doing great. But w like when we t we we're talking to our citizens and and and people across this county, what else can we do to make sure that that's maintained? What else can we do do to make sure that that seagrass stays alive.

39:19So along with the proper fertilizer use, also looking at the different types of pesticides that you're using, uh, it all has to do with a water quality issue, which is what we saw with that red tide that's just almost came up to us last summer, which then attributes to fish kills and everything else. One thing though that as well residents can do, we talk about fertilizer and pesticides, but another thing. is marine debris, which is a huge issue. They're actually saying that if we don't change what we're doing in the next decade,

39:50for every three pounds of fish in our oceans, there will be one pound of plastic, which is Awful. So one thing is to make sure that we are properly disposing of our trash. If you're out there boating, make sure that you don't have those flyaway bags and other items. Try to use not use single use plastics and that way we can all have that positive impact on our waters that we love.

40:11Okay, thank you. Madam Clerk. You know, I'm so glad you're bringing this ordinance up and we when we adopted an ordinance many years ago it was all to try to help with the awareness too. So this is a big big moment. I wanna give you two ideas to think about coming up. When we have people that live on canals, waterways. That's where it goes. And if there's grass that gets in there, it's got fertilizer on it, guess what? It's causing the pollution. If you guys have some ideas how we can work with the associations up and down the coast to go deal with that great. The other thing I want to ask you if you could

40:42is uh try to try to make it to the next Tam Bay Estuary meeting, uh next one's next Friday. Um we're gonna be talking about a bunch of different things. We're looking at expanding the estuaries reach from just inside the bays and up to Hillsborough River which would only hit Swesse Chapel, but to go along the whole coast. If we can do a baffle box program, it can take care of sediments, three levels of it, so it gets like nothing when it comes out. And it has also got um uh screens in it so they can take all the trash so it doesn't hit there as well.

41:12Uh University of uh the city of Tampa has got several of them that are working very well. And they've they've done them for like twenty years, improving and they're better and better and better. And matter of fact, USF is actually studying what the results of these collections are and what the effects are going to be. So It's a time when now we're looking at doing these up and down the whole coast. And if you guys want to jump in with it, I'd love to have you.

41:33Yeah, absolutely. We've actually partnered with the Tampa Bay Estuary Program on different things. We have a workshop that we're partnering with them, um the Patel College, and that's gonna take place next week on what people can do for the fertilizer awareness.

41:47Excellent. Well thank

41:47you. There um there are communities that don't allow fertilizer during certain times of the year. I don't think we've gone that far, but

41:56we're we're actually trying to work with that too with some of our realtors and our board of directors trying to get the word out to HOAs about what they can do for proper fertilizer use. Most people are good people and want to do the right thing. They just aren't aware of what that right thing might be. So Yeah.

42:13Right, thank you. Good message. All right, uh Jack, you'll take this down.

42:18Well Madam Chairman Mariano's walking down, remember remember ri uh prior to COVID, one of the things I brought up was um like plant um painting the um Yeah. Around the coast and stuff. I think the person unfortunately that um was gonna head that up is is not with the county anymore. But I think it's something we could look into. And you'd be great. And you talked about the baffle boxes and stuff too, yeah.

42:40I think.

42:43Okay guys, one, two, three. Thank you.

42:49All right,

42:50one, two, three.

42:54Kristen, when's the next cleanup?

43:01June eighth. Okay. Why why don't you say that in the mic there?

43:06Um our next cleanup is gonna be June eighth. We're actually partnering with the city of New Port Richey's Day. And then we also have our Key Pasco Beautiful cleanup that will be September seventeenth, which is the third Saturday of September. Okay.

43:20All right. Thank you.

43:26R S four.