Large crowd opposes bill that would require farmers to report fertilizer use to protect water

Yahoo

05-02-2025

An irrigation pivot sits in a crop of canola near Echo. (Photo by Kathy Aney/Oregon Capital Chronicle)
A bill that would require thousands of farmers to report their fertilizer use to the Oregon Department of Agriculture drew a big crowd largely in opposition to the proposal in its first public hearing.
Senate Bill 747 would require farms larger than 200 acres to report their annual fertilizer use — including the quantity applied, the type of fertilizer and the crop grown on the fertilized land — to the department.
The bill's sponsor, Sen. Khanh Pham, D-Portland, said she wants the state agriculture department to track fertilizer applications to help identify where and how large concentrations of nutrients found in fertilizers, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, are getting into and contaminating ground and surface water. Excesses of those nutrients cause frequent summer algal blooms in parts of the state and are making well water unsafe to drink in critical groundwater areas. Irrigated agriculture is responsible for the bulk of groundwater nitrate contamination in Morrow and Umatilla counties, according to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. The area is in critical condition, according to the department, and well water is unsafe to drink for thousands. The agency recently found nitrogen pollution in the area got worse in the last decade.
Under state and federal law, companies that discharge water laced with fertilizers and other pollutants must have a permit and report those wastewater applications to the state. But farms, which spread tons of fertilizers and manure, have historically been exempt from that reporting.
'Senate Bill 747 does not impose restrictions,' Pham told the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Wildfire. 'It simply collects data so agencies can provide better technical support, improve efficiency and prevent fertilizer waste.'
Similar legislation exists in Pennsylvania, she said.
More than 100 people and entities have submitted written testimony, and about 75% are opposed to the bill. They include representatives of the Oregon Seed Association, the Oregon Farm Bureau and the Oregon Forest Industries Council. About 75% of the irrigated farms in Oregon are less than 200 acres, according to the 2022 U.S. Department of Agriculture's Census of Agriculture. The 3,100 irrigated farms that are more than 200 acres, however, own more irrigated acreage in the state than the smaller farms combined.
Large irrigated farmland owners said they fear steep penalties — up to $10,000, according to the bill — for failing to provide the data or for being found by the state to be overapplying fertilizer. They testified in person and via video, largely expressing concerns that state agencies lack the expertise to understand the rate that fertilizer is absorbed by the hundreds of crops in the state, which are grown in varying soil types. They said it would be expensive and ineffective for agencies to try to track the data and determine problem areas.
State Rep. Bobby Levy, R-Echo, who applies nitrate-rich wastewater from the Port of Morrow as fertilizer on her farmland in Boardman, testified against the bill.
'Requiring producers to report raw fertilizer use data ignores the complexity and creates a misleading narrative that application rates alone can determine overuse or environmental impact,' she said.
The Port of Morrow has violated its wastewater permit nearly every year for the past two decades, overapplying nitrogen-rich wastewater produced by food operators at the port, across farms over the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area and contributing to ongoing nitrate pollution.
John Iverson, a farmer from Woodburn, Oregon who testified against the bill, expressed concerns that state's collecting fertilizer data would lead to fertilizer restrictions like those in Denmark. Farmers there must submit fertilizer plans to the government each year so potential pollution can be closely regulated. This has had unintended consequences, according to Iverson, who said he met with pig farmers in the country who now have to import animal feed from Brazil because farmers in Denmark cannot grow enough of it given fertilizer rules.
'This is a slippery slope. I urge you to vote 'no,'' he said.
But researchers at the University of Aarhus in Denmark found those fertilizer restrictions had a big impact on water quality. In the first 15 years of the regulations, from 1989 to 2004, nitrogen pollution in more than 80 streams across Denmark declined by an average of 29% to 32% and in some regions, nitrogen pollution was cut in half.
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