Large crowd opposes bill that would require farmers to report fertilizer use to protect water

By Alex Baumhardt | Oregon Capital Chronicle | Feb. 5, 2025

A bill that would require thousands of farmers to report their fertilizer use to the Oregon Department of Agriculture drew a big crowd largely in opposition to the proposal in its first public hearing.

Senate Bill 747 would require farms larger than 200 acres to report their annual fertilizer use — including the quantity applied, the type of fertilizer and the crop grown on the fertilized land — to the department. 

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Khanh Pham, D-Portland, said she wants the state agriculture department to track fertilizer applications to help identify where and how large concentrations of nutrients found in fertilizers, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, are getting into and contaminating ground and surface water. Excesses of those nutrients cause frequent summer algal blooms in parts of the state and are making well water unsafe to drink in critical groundwater areas. Irrigated agriculture is responsible for the bulk of groundwater nitrate contamination in Morrow and Umatilla counties, according to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. The area is in critical condition, according to the department, and well water is unsafe to drink for thousands. The agency recently found nitrogen pollution in the area got worse in the last decade.