SB123 Summary

• County commissions and municipal governing bodies are prohibited from adopting or continuing ordinances, rules, or resolutions regulating the registration, packaging, labeling, sale, distribution, transportation, storage, or application of fertilizers.

• The Department of Agriculture and Industries is granted exclusive jurisdiction over all fertilizer regulation matters in Alabama.

• Unmanipulated animal and vegetable manures, marl, lime, limestone, wood ashes, boiler ashes from pulp and paper industries, and similar products are exempted from the fertilizer definition.

• Zoning ordinances and business licenses remain valid except where they purport to regulate fertilizers as prohibited by this section.

• Political subdivisions may be exempt from these restrictions if their National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit or ADEM administrative action requires stricter standards based on federal or state requirements for impaired water bodies, but must document the rationale and the exemption lapses upon water quality restoration.