Opinion published in the Register Guard, August 9, 2002

Should the farmlands, lawns and gardens of Oregon be used as dumping grounds for hazardous industrial waste?

For almost 20 years, that's exactly what has been happening. Farmers all over the state have been using fertilizers without knowing that along with beneficial plant nutrients, they are plowing lead, arsenic and mercury into their soils. Home gardeners have unwittingly been applying commercial fertilizers that contain levels of toxins dangerous to their family's health.

Anyone exposed to these tainted fertilizers through direct contact, breathing airborne particles or eating food grown with them is at increased risk of cancer and serious damage to vital organs. And, of course, children and pregnant women are especially vulnerable.

What is difficult to believe is that the federal government actually encourages mixing hazardous waste in fertilizer. While some of these wastes contain materials beneficial to plant growth, they also have toxic constituents proven to be harmful to humans.

When industries dispose of hazardous waste at regulated disposal sites, they must abide by strict federal guidelines for identifying and tracking their waste. But if they sell their waste instead to fertilizer companies, they can circumvent expensive disposal and tracking problems and make money, too. Fertilizer manufacturers, for their part, profit from cheap raw materials and the legal loopholes that allow them to incorporate these highly toxic materials into their products. One day it's considered a hazardous waste and the next it's a fertilizer.

The Environmental Protection Agency has only recently acknowledged that there might be a problem. Yet its new guidelines will ensure the continuation of this dangerous practice. The EPA allows individual states to set their own standards for fertilizers manufactured and sold within their boundaries. Unfortunately, the state Department of Agriculture, the agency granted this authority in Oregon, is heavily influenced by the fertilizer industry, which of course stands to benefit most from low standards and lax regulation.

Earlier this year, the department convened a rule-writing committee to propose labeling requirements, enforcement guidelines and metal levels. I was invited to participate in these discussions, as were two other representatives from statewide environmental organizations. On the other hand, more than 25 people represented the fertilizer industry. After four months of meetings, not a single suggestion from any one of the three environmental representatives was incorporated into the agency's proposed administrative rules.

These rules do not require that the product's label reveal anything other than the beneficial nutrients. Instead, consumers are being asked to search through as many as three separate Web sites to find out whether the fertilizer they intend to buy contains dangerous levels of heavy metals.

Essentially, your fertilizer purchase has now become a three-part process. First you'll visit your local garden store to look over the fertilizers. Then, you'll head back home to look the products up on the Internet. Finally you'll return to make your purchase. If you don't have a computer or access to the Internet, you're out of luck.

The Department of Agriculture is proposing minimal standards for the following heavy metals: lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury and nickel. The department failed to consider the dangers of other toxic substances such as dioxin that are often present in waste derived fertilizers sold in Oregon. Washington and California have established regulations that are significantly more stringent than our own proposed rules. If our standards are not at least as high as those of our neighboring states, Oregon will become the dumping ground for fertilizers not permitted elsewhere.

The citizens of Oregon are being led to believe that these proposed rules will protect them from the adverse effects of spreading toxic substances on our gardens. On the contrary, if these regulations go into effect, this insidious practice will continue with no consideration given to direct exposure to these adulterated products nor to the long-term impact on our soils.

We are asking for a ban on the manufacture and sales of hazardous waste-derived fertilizer in the state of Oregon. There is no justification for contaminating our soils and risking the health of our citizens just to provide a less expensive means of waste disposal. With every planting season that passes, Oregon soils grow increasingly toxic and hazardous to our health.

If you object to hazardous waste being used in the manufacture of fertilizer, contact the Oregon Toxics Alliance to find out how you can help end this insane practice.

If you only have time to make a phone call or send an e-mail, contact Department of Agriculture Director Phil Ward at (800) 986-4720 or pward@oda.state.or.us to voice your opposition to hazardous waste-derived fertilizer. Demand a public hearing in your community!

If you do nothing else, please find out what's in the fertilizer before you bring it home. Our Web site - www.oregontoxics.org - will link you to information for fertilizers commonly sold in the Northwest.

David Monk of Eugene is executive director of the Oregon Toxics Alliance (info@oregontoxics.org, or 541-465-8860).