MURRIETA - Two or three dozen bags of it are OK, but dumping a load of it within sniffing distance of a neighbor could get you into deep doo-doo with the city government.

Regulations on how manure can be spread and stored were approved Tuesday as City Council members said they were confident the new rules will limit nuisances without obstructing backyard gardeners or longtime farmers.

The five members approved the rules unanimously after City Attorney Leslie Devaney pointed to "right-to-farm" exemptions for fields where crops have grown for at least three years.

One member was concerned that a home improvement store or other business selling fertilizer might get snared by the rules despite their intent to limit nuisances in residential areas. Councilman Warnie Enochs wanted to make sure that fertilizer emptied from a pickup and tilled into a large garden wouldn't run afoul of the new rules.

The new rules apply only to "unbagged" manure that's dumped or spread on land where it becomes a nuisance, as opposed to the stuff that green thumbs buy at a hardware store.

"The reason we're doing this is because Murrieta wants to protect its citizens," said Councilman Rick Gibbs, who developed the proposal with Devaney. "When you dump manure in 10- or 20-ton increments, that's not farming."

Gibbs brought up the issue with her after residents off of Antelope Road complained in February and again in July that two absentee owners were spreading concentrated animal waste over a neighboring 30-acre field where crops hadn't grown in at least five years.

Gibbs said "a number" of constituents had complained about large-scale manure use by landowners, including at least one whom he believed to have turned residential land into a waste-disposal business.

Devaney told Enochs that a single truckload of manure may or may not be a problem, depending on how it was being used. Manure that's spread over and then immediately tilled into a garden is probably okay, she said, but a pile created by a small fleet of dump trucks probably isn't.

"It depends on all the facts relevant to a piece of property," Devaney said. "Are you selling it just to get rid of it or are you selling it because there's a need?"

The discussion Tuesday evening in the City Council chambers was punctuated by a few chuckles but comments from just one resident, who stepped forward to say that indiscriminate dumping and spreading of manure is a potential health hazard.

After a newspaper reported earlier this month that the council would address the issue, Mayor Doug McAllister said an acquaintance asked him why the Murrieta City Council was spending "so much time" on manure.

"Well, we try not to," McAllister said he replied. "This may cause a stink, but that's the way it goes."

- Contact staff writer Chris Bagley at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2615, or cbagley@californian.com.