Nursery groups sue S.C. over shipment limits

Industry officials fear a patchwork of regulations across the country

By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press

Nursery groups from California and Oregon have filed suit against South Carolina, seeking to overturn regulations that limit plant shipments to that state.

Plaintiffs in the case -- the California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers and the Oregon Association of Nurseries -- filed a legal complaint March 8 against the state of South Carolina and the state's agriculture department.

Two private companies harmed by South Carolina's regulations, Monrovia Growers and Woodburn Nursery & Azaleas, have joined the case as plaintiffs.

In 2009, South Carolina enacted regulations intended to discourage the spread of Phytophthora ramorum, a fungal pathogen that causes sudden oak death, from Western states where the disease has been found.

Nursery groups from Oregon and California argue that federal plant protection regulations preempt South Carolina's rules, which require nursery producers from states affected by the disease to undergo added inspections and submit additional documentation.

"This step doesn't just cause grief for shippers in the short term," said Rober Dolezal, executive vice president of CANGC. "It causes people to lose long-term business relationships."

Before the new rules went into affect, California growers sent roughly $1 million worth of nursery stock a year to South Carolina, Dolezal said.

California doesn't issue the phytosanitary certificates required by South Carolina's regulations, so California nurseries are now effectively blocked from shipping to that state, according to the legal complaint.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture does issue such certificates, but nurseries have had shipments blocked because they weren't aware of South Carolina's new rules, said John Aguirre, executive director of OAN.

Oregon Agriculture Department officials have also told OAN they'd be unable to keep up with demand for the certificates if other states began imposing similar requirements, Aguirre said.

"There aren't enough people to make it happen," he said.

The lawsuit seeks to reverse South Carolina's regulations and prevent other states from adopting a patchwork of regulations that would impede interstate shipping of nursery stock, Aguirre said.

"The bigger issue for us is we can't afford to have other states follow the example of South Carolina," he said.

Dolezal echoed that concern.

"Pretty soon, you'd have 50 states with their own unique situations," he said.

In 2004, the California nursery group prevailed in a similar lawsuit against the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, which implemented shipping restrictions aimed at nursery stock.

Dolezal said the complaint against South Carolina is similar, so the group expects to win an injunction against the rules.

"As a matter of law, it's a very straightforward case," he said.

South Carolina's Department of Plant Industry, which regulates plant pests in the state, cannot comment on the lawsuit until officials have a chance to review the complaint, said Christel Harden, assistant head of the department.

In a previous Capital Press story about the regulations, Harden said South Carolina enacted the rules because several plant shipments to the state were found to have been sent from infected nurseries on the West Coast.

The Department of Plant Industry was charged with finding and destroying the potentially diseased nursery stock.

"It took our inspectors away from their regular work and it made us the bad guys," Harden said at the time. "I feel like there is an unreasonable burden on our department."