Venice vice mayor to seek citywide ban of fertilizer

VENICE — Vice Mayor Bob Daniels is asking the City Council to consider a ban on the use of fertilizer within the city limits, similar to one put in place by Sewall’s Point, in Martin County, on the east coast of Florida.

“I’m proposing a year-round ban, until we’re able to monitor what we’re putting into the three miles of the Gulf offshore — that being the outfalls and the septic systems,” Daniels said Tuesday morning at the Venice Municipal Fishing Pier.

Daniels wants the ban to include glyphosate herbicides, commonly known as Roundup.

His proposed ban would be placed on the council’s Sept. 11 agenda for discussion and could be in place “until we can guarantee we’re not putting out any nutrients.”

Sarasota County already regulates the use of fertilizer during the rainy season. Daniels’ idea would go further. He sees it as cutting off nourishment for Karenia brevis, the organism that causes red tide.

Read more: Complete coverage of red tide in Southwest Florida “My hypothesis, for the city, is we can control the food supply for three miles from the city,” Daniels said. “We’re going to cut it off.

“I don’t like seeing people walking around with respirators and gas masks and big dolphins being killed and birds and stuff like that,” he added.