If you are looking for information on the contaminant level of fertilizers you are using you can search by fertilizer name in the Washington State Department of Ecology’s Fertilizer Database or in the WSDA’s fertilizer database. Please keep in mind that the information is reported by the industry and very few samples are ever independently sampled for accuracy of reporting. The Report to the Legislature are samples collected and tested by the State and may be more reliable.
You can also search fertilizers by registrant or product name or brand in the Oregon Fertilizer registry.
Below is more information on who, where and what is being distributed in your state. Start with the Environmental Working Group’s 1998 review of reported movement of hazardous wastes to farms or fertilizer companies. Again, keep in mind that only those industries who reported shipments are included.
Factory Farming, an Environmental Working Group report from 1998
Wastelands, a fertilizer sampling study conducted with CalPIRG.
Minnesota State Fertilizer analysis (verified results) 2001
Minnesota State Fertilizer analysis (verified results) 2002-2007
WSDA Fertilizer Report 1999 (Appendix B, verified results)
Fertilizers in violation of Washington’s Fertilizer Act, 1999-2004
In 2001 with the help of Greenpeace International we tested fertilizers from 14 countries around the world and from 12 U.S. states. While this was a limited sampling, the results suggest that U.S. fertilizers are much dirtier than those used around the world.
If you are a farmer it behooves you to keep a sample or each fertilizer you use on your land, and to take/keep a background soil sample. Without proof of harm or soil degradation, you will find yourself discredited just as the farmers in Quincy did. It’s all about disposal. It’s all about money.