Amendment would regulate some fertilizer sales in Oklahoma

<br>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ An amendment approved by an Oklahoma House committee would allow the state Agriculture Department to keep an eye on the sale of fertilizer by small retailers. <br><br>The amendment

Tuesday, March 26th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ An amendment approved by an Oklahoma House committee would allow the state Agriculture Department to keep an eye on the sale of fertilizer by small retailers.

The amendment proposing changes to the Oklahoma Fertilizer Act was added Monday to a bill to adopt milk as the state's official beverage. The amendment was approved before the bill passed the House Agriculture and Rural Development Committee.

Agriculture officials say the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks highlight the importance of keeping track of fertilizers that could be used in bomb making.

``Somebody has to have a handle on who all is selling, distributing and using fertilizers,'' said Joe Neal Hampton, president of the Oklahoma Fertilizer and Chemical Association.

Supporters say the proposal would keep track of retailers who sell the product to the general public the same way state law keeps track of commercial fertilizer dealers who sell the product to farmers and ranchers.

The bill would require any business or individual who distributes or sells fertilizer to pay a $50 annual license fee. It would require retailers to obtain a license for each business location _ commercial fertilizer dealers already have such a requirement.

The bill would require each license holder to pay the Agriculture Department a semi- annual inspection fee and provide an estimate of how much fertilizer it sold during the period. The fee would be assessed at a rate of 65 cents per ton of what they estimated was sold.

About half of the fee would go to a soil fertility research account for Oklahoma State University's Plant and Soil Sciences Department.

The proposed law also would require distributors of specialty fertilizer products to register their products with the Agriculture Department. A fee of $100 would be required for each product sold within the state.

Information collected would not be disclosed in any way that divulges proprietary information, the bill says.

The bill is Senate Bill 908, co-authored by Sen. Paul Muegge, D-Tonkawa, and Rep. Clay Pope, D-Loyal.

Pope said he supports the bill's intent to keep track of what companies are selling fertilizer in a retail, home-use type setting. But he said he did not realize the bill would force retailers to buy licenses for every location where they operate.

``We will have to clean that language up,'' Pope said.