EPA tightens rules on fertilizer

The Environmental Protection Agency has closed a loophole that allowed toxic steel-mill waste to go untreated into ordinary farm and garden fertilizer.

The EPA also issued a warning on one popular fertilizer brand and encouraged states to adopt tougher laws, modeled after Washington state's.

At the same time, though, the agency enraged environmental groups by saying there is no "specific evidence" that fertilizers containing arsenic, cadmium, lead and dioxins pose a serious threat to human health, the environment or the food supply.

The EPA rule change was sparked by a 1997 Seattle Times investigative report titled "Fear in the Fields: How hazardous wastes become fertilizer" and a 2000 out-of-court settlement with the Washington Toxics Coalition and the Sierra Club.

But Laurie Valeriano, policy director of the toxics coalition, said the EPA is ignoring numerous examples of serious threats from recycling toxic wastes into fertilizer.

"EPA barely scratched the surface," Valeriano said. "We are incredibly tired of EPA turning a blind eye to this issue and saying there isn't a problem."

Kathy Mathers, vice president of the Fertilizer Institute in Washington, D.C., said the industry group is "pleased EPA recognizes fertilizers are safe."

The EPA received nearly 1,000 comments on its proposed rule, most calling for stronger national regulation, including consumer labeling of fertilizers derived from hazardous waste.

The EPA said such labeling would unfairly stigmatize products that are as clean as mined material and that it wanted to encourage safe recycling while saving the industry money. The EPA wants to leave further fertilizer regulation to the states.

Historically, states have tested only for advertised nutrients in fertilizer. They have had no limits on the levels of toxins not disclosed on product labels.

Since 1997, Washington, Texas and California have adopted limits on toxic chemicals in fertilizer, each taking a different approach to regulation. The other 47 states are considering a looser, industry-backed proposal.

The 84-page EPA final rule recommended other states follow the Washington law, which it termed "highly successful" in reducing contaminants in fertilizer. Washington limits nine toxic chemicals and posts chemical analyses on a Web site for every registered fertilizer.

The EPA also announced it will report next year on a study of Ironite, a popular consumer and golf-course fertilizer derived from Arizona mine tailings.

Last month, 23 public-health and environmental groups called on Home Depot, Lowe's and Target retail stores to stop selling Ironite because of lead and arsenic. Maine pulled Ironite from store shelves.

Ironite Products of Scottsdale, Ariz., says the lead and arsenic in its product are in a form not biologically available to plants. Companies can spread mine tailings on land without the restriction of federal hazardous-waste laws under a 1980 congressional exemption.

The EPA said it "continues to believe that concerns regarding exposure to arsenic in Ironite products are worthy of serious consideration, particularly since it is a widely marketed consumer product intended for use by home gardeners and others. As such, the potential for misuse and/or accidental exposure (especially to children) cannot be discounted."

Dave Fagan, policy analyst in the EPA's Office of Solid Waste, emphasized the new federal regulation addressed only zinc, one small aspect of the broader issue of contaminants in fertilizer.

"Because fertilizers are generally safe, EPA sees no compelling reason to launch a broad new federal regulatory program to address fertilizer contaminants," the agency wrote in its final rule. "This is not to say, however, that there is no need at all to regulate fertilizer contaminants. A wide range of fertilizers and soil amendments, including many products that are not made from recycled wastes, contain appreciable levels of heavy metal contaminants."

The EPA said a few products "may contain contaminants at levels approaching those which could pose unacceptable risks to human health and the environment."

Steel-mill wastes have been exempt from hazardous-waste laws since 1988 if used in fertilizer. That loophole was promoted by a few fertilizer companies, which were paid to take the material, and by steel mills, which saved money. EPA's action will close the loophole six months after publication in the Federal Register, scheduled for Tuesday.

EPA said the steel-mill wastes will have to meet strict limits on lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, chromium and dioxins to be able to go on the land. The limits are based on mined zinc and background levels in soil.

Industry and environmental groups remain polarized on the broader issue of fertilizer safety.

The Fertilizer Institute says three risk assessments have shown fertilizers generally are safe. Mathers said the EPA's new steel-waste controls are too strict. She said an industry study shows levels hundreds of times higher than the EPA adopted — but still less than 1 percent of the waste volume — would safely protect both human health and the environment.

The toxics coalition says the EPA has allowed large quantities of lead and dioxins, some of the most dangerous poisons known to man, to be dumped on gardens and farmland, with unknown effect.

Valeriano said the "quick and dirty" EPA and industry studies haven't added up the cumulative effects of toxic materials over years of use.

Duff Wilson: 206-464-2288 or dwilson@seattletimes.com.