Ordinances addressing fertilizer runoff into waterways are being drafted and presented to several townships in Washtenaw County.
The Huron River Watershed Council is encouraging Dexter and Lyndon Townships to adopt ordinances limiting fertilizer usage near lakes and rivers.
David Lossing is the council’s Director of Government Relations. He says the ordinances would bar homeowners, except members of the agricultural community, from applying fertilizer within 50 feet of high-water marks. He adds fertilizer runoff can negatively impact the environment.
“When you apply fertilizer and the ground hasn’t absorbed it yet or you apply it right before a rainstorm, that’s going to get washed off and thus create algal blooms.”
Lossing says the council is working with Dexter and Lyndon Township to finalize and possibly pass these ordinances by around May.
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