more on phos bans

Mmm, phosphoro-licious. Just when you thought you'd had enough.

A loyal fan directed me to some further information. Lest I forget, I'll go ahead and include it here now. It's a nice distraction from statistics I should be running this afternoon.

For those of you interested in more details on the Minnesota situation, the MN dept of ag has a website with some follow-up information.

http://www.mda.state.mn.us/en/protecting/waterprotection/phoslaw.aspx

There is a 3-page summary and a 41-page summary from March 17, 2007. The links are right there on the above webpage, at the top, if you want to check them out. I read the 3-pager and scanned briefly a few parts of the 41.

In the 41-pager the summary of water quality testing is on p 15-16. At the time of the report, they had not detected any trends. The "total phosphorus runoff" measured in lbs/acre/inch of runoff was about the same in 2006 as in 1999, for example, and the report contains more details about how the measurements were done, where variation can come from, etc.

On page 12-13 there are some graphs showing changes in fertilizer use.

On p. 22 they discuss how if turf stands become too sparse, increased erosion and runoff can occur.

They also have info on consumer behavior and knowledge (more for home lawn types of stuff).