Pointing to ongoing threats to manatees, a U.S. district judge Friday said the state has violated the federal Endangered Species Act in its regulation of wastewater discharges into the Indian River Lagoon.
Orlando-based Judge Carlos Mendoza issued a 21-page decision that sided with the environmental group Bear Warriors United, which argued discharges into the waterway along the East Coast led to the demise of seagrass and, as a result, deaths and other harm to manatees.
Mendoza said the Florida Department of Environmental Protection needs to seek what is known as an “incidental take permit” from federal wildlife officials to help minimize effects of discharges on manatees.
The judge wrote that under the Department of Environmental Protection’s regulations, it would take at least a decade for conditions in the northern part of the Indian River Lagoon to start to recover. That area is primarily in Brevard County.
“This is due to the previously and currently permitted discharge of legacy pollutants via wastewater into the north IRL (Indian River Lagoon),” Mendoza wrote. “These legacy pollutants caused the death of seagrasses — the manatee’s natural forage — and the proliferation of harmful macroalgae. Legacy pollutants, as their name suggests, persist in the environment and cause harmful effects long after they have entered the system.”
Mendoza added, “What all this means is that FDEP (the Department of Environmental Protection) would have to reduce nutrients entering the IRL to a low enough level and for a long enough time for nutrients to cycle out of the system to allow seagrasses to return at significant levels. Conversely, if FDEP does not reduce nutrient levels, there will continue (to) be harmful algal blooms and, in turn, no seagrass recovery and more manatee takings.”
Bear Warriors United filed the lawsuit in 2022, contending that the department had not adequately regulated sewage-treatment plants and septic systems. Florida had a record 1,100 manatee deaths in 2021, with the largest number, 358, in Brevard County. Many deaths were linked to starvation.
The state had 800 manatee deaths in 2022, before the number dropped to 555 in 2023 and 565 in 2024, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission data. As of April 4, 282 manatees deaths had been reported this year, including 55 in Brevard County.
Manatees are classified by the federal government as a threatened species.
The state’s attorneys have argued during the lawsuit that Florida has taken steps in recent years to try to reduce discharges into the lagoon and disputed that it has violated the Endangered Species Act. As an example, a state motion for summary judgment last year said the department’s “actions are not the proximate cause of any harm” to manatees.
“The record shows that DEP has not authorized or entitled any party to cause a violation of water quality standards,” the state’s attorneys wrote. “It has, instead, worked diligently to restore an impaired water. There is no proximate cause. DEP is entitled to judgment as a matter of law because with no dispute of material fact, it has not violated the ESA (the Endangered Species Act).”
Under federal law, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service can approve incidental take permits to allow activities, such as wastewater discharges, that are not designed to “take” animals covered under the Endangered Species Act. But as part of that process, what is known as a habitat conservation plan must be developed to minimize effects on species.
Mendoza described the lawsuit as a “quintessential case in which an ITP (incidental take permit) should be required.”
“As defendant’s (the state’s) witnesses testified, FDEP is taking important, necessary steps to remediate the polluted waters of the IRL,” Mendoza wrote. “But that is not enough. The north IRL is in such a deteriorated state that the required remediation will take many years, as the state itself has acknowledged. And during that remediation, wastewater discharged pursuant to FDEP’s regulations will continue to indirectly take manatees in the north IRL. … There is a definitive causal link between FDEP’s wastewater regulations and an ongoing risk of manatee takings. While FDEP’s efforts continue, added protection for the manatees is needed. FDEP must obtain an ITP.”
–Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida
Bear Warriors United v. Alexis Lambert
bear-warriors-united
Jerry Egleston says
With all this discussion about the Mayor’s speech the other day, I admit he may have chosen a better time to speak of the problems we face as a city but he may have felt he had no other opportunity. As a long time resident of Palm Coast, I don’t understand the city allowing for these large home additions when the commissioners should have known the present system could not handle the number of homes the commission agreed to. This problem is totally on the shoulders of the commissioners. Rate increases should not be charged to residents. This problem was not caused by the residents, it was caused by the commissioners, they are the ones that created this problem.
Endless dark money says
lol the cult of cons doesn’t care about anything but money for the few. If they watch a kid starve for a dollar I don’t think they will care much for the manatee. That company polluting the waterway needs more profit. Enjoy the mass logging of the national forests so the logging ceo now in charge of the department of forestry needs more money. Maybe we should deport the manatees to a place where they can be cared for .
JimboXYZ says
This next round of news makes me or really anyone have to be curious & wonder what the “real” STF impacts have been for the last 4 years of growth alone have become for the Vision/Imagine of 2050 for Palm Coast & Flagler County. What they will become as STF ramps up to capacity & beyond for the population growths of past, present & future ? The State grants that were never funded were that “leak” of an issue, then there was the threat(s) of the State fine(s) & lawsuit(s) to approve the $ 512 million STF upgrades of existing & new facility ? When the “experts” in the Government at any level (Fed, State, County & Local City) don’t exactly tell you how real/dire the situation really was/is ? Appearances are that the development money is more important than the environment, public health & safety ? Always has been that way ?
Dennis C Rathsam says
HOOORAAAAY FOR THE MANATEES !!!!!!!
Pig Farmer says
DeSantis will solve the problem by deporting all Florida Manatee to Ecuador.
The dude says
As I stood on a dock on the river Friday about lunchtime and watched two beautiful manatees swim by. Then two minutes later about ten boats wide open down the same side.
I wondered to myself which of those boats speeding to the inlet, would be the one to kill one of those beautiful creatures.
Laurel says
This is not just a problem in Indian River Lagoon, it’s across the state. This state treats the Intra-coastal Waterway as a garbage dump. When a treatment plant cannot keep up with the influent, whether because of growth or flooding (or both) the effluent is discharged directly to the ICW. That is a problem created by local government.
Residents and lawn care companies treat the ICW as a garbage dump as well. Leaves and grass clipping are blown directly into the river, creating muck that clogs the gills of fish, crabs and mollusks. Herbicides and pesticides are applied without consideration of the possibility of rain, or sprinkler systems washing the toxins into the system. There is little to nil public education in Flagler County.
I used to swim here when we first moved here. No more; no way.