Earlier this week, family farmers were in Salem voicing their opposition to Senate Bill 747. The legislation, sponsored by Portland Senator Khanh Pham, would require farms 200 acres and larger to report their annual fertilizer use to the state Department of Agriculture. The legislation is in response to groundwater nitrate contamination in Morrow and Umatilla counties.
SB 747 in its current form would require farmers to report their fertilizer usage, as well as the crops on which that fertilizer is applied.
Representative Shelly Boshart Davis, a hazelnut and grass seed in the Albany area, said it’s hard to not to be a little offended by the premise of this legislation.
“Senate Bill 747 assumes that farmers apply fertilizers without regard to crop science or sustainability, and proposes to levy heavy penalties based on that misunderstanding. It’s clear to me that neither farmers nor agronomists were consulted in the drafting of this bill. If they had been, they would have communicated how complex nutrient management is and how important it is to the success of the farm.”
Davis added that she, and the other farmers who appeared to testify, drink the water found on their family farm. Salem area Republican Representative Anna Scharf said she recognizes the issues the residents of the Umatilla Basin are facing, but said this legislation is not the way to go.
“The bill also says that as a part of the reporting, ODA shall establish a process to “determine if a person is over applying fertilizer in a manner that can lead to runoff, the contamination of surface water, leaching groundwater”. With all the possible application, weather, topography, crop, etc., variables, ODA is going to need to hire an army of agronomists, hydrologists, climatologists be given access to OWRD [Oregon Water Resources Department] water records and so on. And the fiscal impact should be fairly interesting.”
More than 100 people and organizations submitted written testimony this week, and about 75% are opposed SB 747. Organizations voicing their opposition include the Oregon Farm Bureau, the Oregon Forest Industries Council, the Oregon Seed Association, Oregon Business & Industry and others.
Click Here to learn more about SB 747.
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