Lawn Fertilizers Banned Due to Water Contamination in New York State

You cannot use lawn fertilizers between certain dates in New York State because of certain chemicals that get into the ground and water.

There are still times that you can use fertilizers but, you may not have known about the laws surrounding fertilizers in New York State. There are very important rules that they have in place on the New York State DEC website:

• You are NOT allowed to use fertilizer at any time in New York State before April 1 and you cannot fertilize after December 1 because of potential run off into water sources.
• You CANNOT have phosphorus in your fertilizer up to a certain amount, which means you might not be able to legally use some.
• You cannot fertilize within 20 feet of water at any time, unless there are shrubs between where the fertilizer is and the water.

The New York State website lists that Phosphorus is the leading element that contaminates water supplies here in our State. Any place that you buy your products including Home Depot, Lowes, gas stations and home improvement stores that sell fertilizer must display phosphorus-containing fertilizer separately from phosphorus-free fertilizers and post a sign near the display.