ANNAPOLIS – Delegate Brian R. Moe, D-Anne Arundel, has introduced a bill aimed at tracking the purchase of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer used to make bombs – most notably in the 1995 Oklahoma City explosion that killed 168 people. The “Commercial Fertilizer — Ammonium Nitrate — Identification for Sale or Distribution” Act would require a two-year record of sale by the distributor and allow sellers to refuse sale to anyone in situations they deem suspicious. “I think that it is the kind of issue that is very important to a lot of people, to track when ammonium nitrates are being moved around,” Moe said. “You can certainly use it as an explosive material.” HB 402 “looks pretty consistent with what has been done in a couple of other states,” said Kathy Mathers, vice president of public affairs at The Fertilizer Institute. States including Oklahoma, North Carolina and Alabama have enacted similar tracking legislation. “We have supported voluntary efforts along the lines of what the bill mandates, and we would support legislation like this,” Mathers said. The Maryland Farm Bureau is taking a wait-and-see attitude on the bill, said Mike Phipps, a Farm Bureau vice president. Because of voluntary efforts recommended by The Fertilizer Institute some Maryland farmers believe the act is unnecessary. Ammonium nitrate isn’t even the most common fertilizer used in Maryland agriculture, said Garrett County farmer William Bishoff. According to data from the Maryland Department of Agriculture, “significantly more urea was distributed than ammonium nitrate in Maryland last (fiscal) year,” said department spokeswoman Sue DuPont. Farm Bureau Government Relations Director Valerie Connelly said, “We’re looking at whether or not we need a regulatory framework. In many cases the industry does that better than (Maryland does) because they have a national framework.” For example, Phipps said, “We did a much better job of nutrient management.” Paperwork and red tape issues have actually made it more difficult for farmers to comply with 1998 state regulations for nutrient management, Connelly said, because most were already complying voluntarily. But other farmers worry that fertilizer legislation will start an avalanche of regulation on necessary farming tools. “Where does it stop?” said David Beall, a Carroll County farmer and vice president of the Farm Bureau. The bill, scheduled for a hearing Feb. 10, is sponsored by 29 delegates. But some legislative supporters stress the issue is being taken up as one of Homeland Security. “We’re not out to get the farmer. We’re not out to get Home Depots,” said Delegate James E. Malone, D-Baltimore, a bill sponsor and former firefighter. “As people in public safety, we’re aware of safety issues.”
“It is a Homeland Security issue,” said Delegate Steven J. DeBoy Sr., D-Baltimore. “We’re trying to be proactive.”
The governor’s Office of Homeland Security has yet to take a position on the bill, but, according to Jim Pettit, a spokesman for the office, a meeting is being set up with Moe to discuss it. Eric Spates, chairman of the Farm Bureau’s young farmers group, said, “We certainly understand the safety issue of it. We don’t want to be a conduit for terrorism.”