Lawsuit seeks EPA help for Florida manatees, Indian River Lagoon

Environmental groups filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, blaming it for not doing enough to spare manatees in Central Florida’s Indian River from mass starvation.

The Center for Biological Diversity, Save the Manatee Club and Defenders of Wildlife had warned EPA of a pending lawsuit in December, as manatee deaths began to accelerate to an unprecedented pace for a second winter in a row.

With Earthjustice filing the federal suit in Central Florida, the three groups are contending that pollution regulations for Brevard County’s portion of the Indian River Lagoon are too weak to stem the ongoing collapse of the coastal ecosystem.

Decades of pollution has reached a tipping point, where an explosive and ongoing growth of harmful algae has wiped out the underwater beds of seagrass that sustain manatees.

“Manatees need clean water to live in — it’s that simple,” Earthjustice lawyer Elizabeth Forsyth said in a statement. “The pollution in the Indian River Lagoon is preventable. We’re asking EPA to step in and ensure the protection of the Indian River Lagoon and the species that depend on it.”

Also Tuesday, EPA officials in Atlanta said in a briefing that Florida’s regulations for sewage, fertilizer and other nutrient pollutants are appropriate, but the federal agency will work with Florida to implement them more quickly.

“What we think will make the most tangible difference for the manatees in the shortest amount of time is accelerated efforts to meet the criteria and reduce nutrient loads into the lagoon,” said Jeaneanne Gettle, EPA’s water division director for the Southeast.

“EPA has and will

continue to work with Florida with the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program and other federal partners to accelerate progress,” Gettle said.

The statement acknowledged that the agency, under the threat of a lawsuit, would not move voluntarily to a formal reevaluation of Florida’s pollution rules to determine if they are stringent enough.

“We’re glad that EPA recognizes that the state isn’t moving fast enough in this crisis to solve the water pollution catastrophe plaguing manatees,” Forsyth said. “But simply asking the state to do more is not enough.”

The environmental groups contend Florida rules are neither protective enough nor pursued aggressively enough.

“Existing water-quality standards just aren’t strong enough to preserve this important ecosystem and save these amazing animals,” said Ragan Whitlock, a lawyer for the CBD.

The 1,101 manatee deaths in 2021 was the most in any year since records began in 1974. Through April of this year 537 manatee carcasses were retrieved from Florida waters. By comparison, 538 deaths were counted in all of 2017, the sixth-deadliest year for manatees.

While funding levels have begun to climb for rescue and care of manatees, and for restoration of seagrass, the overall response has been paltry relative to what’s needed, said Patrick Rose, Save the Manatee Club’s executive director.

Addressing the plight of the Indian River, a 156-mile-long ribbon of inland sea water along the state’s east coast from Volusia County to Palm Beach County, should be on par with campaigns to restore the Everglades and Chesapeake Bay, Rose said.

He said the lawsuit will seek to compel EPA toward that level of response, despite the agency saying it will work voluntarily with Florida.

“We’re not done,” he said.