The Urban Committee of the Virginia Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts offers the following comments regarding the proposed Regulations for the Application of Fertilizer to Nonagricultural Lands (2VAC5-405):

1. Under Section 2VAC5-405-20.B(2), the referenced “standards and criteria” should be clarified with a title and date of the specific manual.  (It should also be confirmed that the “standards and criteria” require that soil test results and associated recommendations be followed.)

2. Section 2VAC5-405-100 requires record-keeping of fertilizer applications.  Requirements for record-keeping of soil test results and recommendations should also be included in this section.

3. In addition to record-keeping, reporting of fertilizer applications and associated nutrient management activities should be mandatory.  This will facilitate Virginia’s reporting of actions taken to accomplish goals of the Chesapeake Bay clean-up programs.

4. We recommend striking #2 of Section 2VAC5-405-50, or at a minimum, restricting its application to small acreages.

5. We recommend that a fee structure be implemented to ensure that the program is self-supporting.

What will be the protocal regarding the football stadium and practice facilities ability to fertilize?  That is assuming that we are able to avoid an NFL Lockout.

The Virginia Agribusiness Council participated in the work group to develop these proposed regulations. We find them to be reasonable and fulfilling the intent of the legislation. However, we would note that the regulations will have the greatest impact on the professional contractor-applicators of fertilizer on non-agricultural land who are already trained, have experience, and have registered with VDACS as legally required. The contractor-applicators who do not register with VDACS are mostly unknown and most probably the most untrained and inexperienced. Efforts need to made to identify these contractor-applicators and ensure their compliance with existing law and regulations.