Red tide and fertilizer impact the topic of Venice City Council discussions

VENICE — Red tide and ways city officials can reduce the impact of fertilizer runoff in the Gulf of Mexico will dominate discussion in several items on tap Tuesday with the Venice City Council.

Venice Mayor John Holic has three separate discussion topics posted on the agenda — a resolution of the Southwest Regional Planning Council regarding biosolids, a direction to staff to get a professional opinion on not removing dead marine life from the beach, and a discussion of Sarasota County’s beach cleanup policy.

Meanwhile Vice Mayor Bob Daniels placed the Florida Friendly Yards program on the agenda for discussion.

Since the Venice City Council hosted a special meeting on red tide in mid-August, people living both in the city and surrounding neighborhoods in south Sarasota County have approached the city to take the lead in helping find a solution to mitigate the current red tide impact as well as that of future outbreaks.

Daniels earned regional praise from clean water advocates in September, when he started pressing for a ban on the use of fertilizer and glyphosate herbicides within city limits.

The city cannot legally take that step without gathering environmental evidence — primarily from stormwater discharged through 17 outfalls, 10 of which drain directly into the Gulf of Mexico — to make a case for enacting a ban more stringent than the state of Florida's.

Venice already follows Sarasota County’s ordinance banning fertilizer from June 1 to Sept. 30, which is stricter than the state’s and grandfathered in, because it was instituted first.

On Sept. 12, the council passed a resolution formally encouraging residents not to use fertilizer year-round and directed staff to develop an educational package for residents.

Staff responded by creating a pamphlet distributed with utility bills and scheduled a presentation on Florida-Friendly landscaping for 6 to 7 p.m. on Oct. 17, with representatives of the University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Sarasota County Extension office.

The regional planning council biosolids resolution essentially says that Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry, Lee and Sarasota counties and municipalities should work together to gauge water quality impact of current biosolids practices and explore new wastewater technologies.

In addition to discussing that, Holic asked City Manager Ed Lavallee for the status of purification provided for wastewater; the parts per billion of phosphorus present in reclaimed water; whether phosphates or phosphorus is added to city drinking water; whether the city fertilizes government land between June 1 and Sept. 30; whether Lake Venice Golf Club fertilizes during that period; and whether the city uses Roundup.

Daniels plans to move to require all new homeowner association developments, new homes and revised landscape master plans to follow Florida-Friendly Yards specifications.

His proposal would affect new building applications submitted after Nov. 1. All new proposed landscape on city-owned property after Nov. 1 would have to conform to those standards and be approved by the city building apartment.

The grassroots environmental group Hands Along the Water is planning a statewide peaceful demonstration from 2 to 3 p.m. on Oct. 20 — Hands Across the State — to call attention to the need for clean water. Venice City Hall and the Unconditional Surrender statue at Bayfront Park in Sarasota are two of the planned locations.