New drive to skip fertilizer

Vehicles belonging to the Pinellas County Department of Environment and Infrastructure can be identified by the Pinellas County logo on the sides and doors. But now, certain vehicles in the DEI fleet can’t be missed.

Besides the county logo, seven trucks, vans and heavy equipment vehicles are now sporting an environmental message that urges residents to “Skip the Fertilizer” this summer and “Be Floridian.”

The vehicles perform a variety of functions in Pinellas County neighborhoods and are estimated to travel at least 10,000 miles a year in high-visibility areas. The vehicle wraps are the result of a $9,000 grant from the Florida Department of Transportation awarded to the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council’s Stormwater Education Committee. The message seeks to remind people of the link between using too much fertilizer and poor water quality in the county’s open waterways.

Pinellas County’s summertime fertilizer ordinance prohibits the use of nitrogen- and/or phosphorus-based fertilizer to reduce the volume of pollutants running off into open bodies of water.

Residents are reminded that there are many other products on the market capable of greening up a lawn without running the risk of polluting the aquatic environment.

Information on the Pinellas County fertilizer ordinance and tips on how to green up one’s lawn without using nitrogen- or phosphorous-based fertilizers is available on the county’s Watershed Management website.