Push for fertilizer ban comes up short in Kendall

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Updated: February 29, 2012 10:22PM

OSWEGO — Kendall County officials say education, rather than a ban on phosphorus-based fertilizers, is the best way to keep contaminants out of local waterways.

The ban had been proposed by the Oswegoland Park Board, which brought the proposal first to the Oswego Village Board after problems in the park district’s waterways.

“We have a lake near Prairie Point where residents came and said ‘It’s a mess, you have to do something about it.’ We thought it was natural, but they were not happy, so we looked into it and there were algae blooms. They didn’t have pea soup, but other plants choked out the oxygen,” said Oswegoland Park District Commissioner Danielle Ebersole.

“So now we’re working with the Army Corps of Engineers, and we may have to dredge the lake to open it back up. That’s what opened the eyes of the Park District.”

In addition to feeding lawns — which, in Kendall County, usually have enough naturally occurring phosphorus to stay green — phosphorus in fertilizers can also create runoff that feeds algae blooms in ponds and streams. At best, algae blooms smell and muck up the water. At worst, overgrowth of algae and other plants can rob the water of oxygen, killing off fish and other underwater inhabitants.

“You have these giant fish kills in the summertime, and people think after it rains that poison has washed into their ponds,” said Ebersole, who added that the pond in her own neighborhood had had a fish kill many years ago.

“We were positive poisons had been dumped in, and we have the water tested, and it wasn’t poison, it was oxygen depletion.”

And those ponds eventually drain into groundwater and other drinking water sources.

“The really scary part is that it’s polluting our groundwater, the water we drink,” said Ebersole. “The algae dies and decays and creates stagnant water. Everything in my pond, in lakes and creeks, all that eventually ends up in the Fox River.”

To save the fish — and residents subject to the smell and view of algae-covered ponds — the Park District proposed a ban on the sale and use of fertilizers containing phosphorus at an intergovernmental meeting hosted by the village of Oswego in November.

Community Development Manager Rod Zenner said the village’s Environmentally Conscious Oswego commission was also searching for solutions to the algae problem, but determining whether residents are coating their lawns in the substance, and enforcing rules against the practice, would be difficult to do locally, Zenner said.

On Jan. 17, the Kendall County Health and Environment Committee considered the phosphorus ban.

But according to County Board member and committee Chairman Suzanne Petrella, the committee decided to not bring forth the proposal.

The problem, Petrella said, is “people who over-fertilize their lawns.”

“People who buy bags for their yards don’t know what they’re doing, and they use too much and that’s what gets into retention ponds,” she said. “We feel at this time education is the way to go.”

Illinois already bans lawn-care companies from applying phosphorus-containing fertilizer above certain thresholds, and phosphates are also banned from laundry and dishwashing detergents because wastewater from homes eventually ends up in waterways.

“Since we have enough of the phosphorus in our soil, we don’t really need it here,” said Ebersole. “It’s not going to impact our lawns in any way by eliminating it. And it really is a big problem.”