IRLNews:Jupiter Attorney Lesley Blackner Sends Letter To Florida Department of Environmental Protection
Blackner's letter points to the North IRL's failing water quality and resulting 95% seagrass loss as the cause of the current Florida Manatee Unusual Mortality Event that has so far this year claimed the lives of over 1000 Florida manatees. Almost 400 of those deceased manatees starved to death in the North Indian River lagoon portion of the national estuary this past winter as they congregated near Port St. John's seagrass deprived warm water refugia.
The environmental lawyer places the blame for the estuary's anthropogenic demise on high levels of nutrient pollution caused by inadequate, dilapidated sewage facilities, and the continued permitting of septic tanks within the IRL watershed. The FDEP is responsible for Florida's water quality, setting acceptable nutrient levels, permitting waste treatment facilities and on-site septic systems, and enforcing Florida's wastewater regulations.
Intent to Sue Letter
The following is an excerpt from Blackner's Intent to Sue Notice to the FDEP on November 17, 2021. Download Blackner - FDEP - Intent to Sue Notice (PDF 25pp 1.18MB) to view the entire document.
RE: 60-Day Notice of Intent to Sue Regarding Violations of the Endangered Species Act regarding harm and death to manatees under the Endangered Species Act.
Dear Secretary Hamilton,
On behalf of the Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) (“manatee”), and Bear Warriors United[1], a Florida not-for-profit dedicated to peaceful coexistence with Florida wildlife, the undersigned writes to request that immediate action be taken by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (“DEP”) to remedy continuous, ongoing violations of Section 9 of the federal Endangered Species Act (“ESA”)[2] with respect to manatees that occupy in that portion of the northern Indian River Lagoon (“north IRL”) which stretches from the Turnbull Creek in Volusia County to the Melbourne Causeway.[3]
The violations at issue include but are not limited to the catastrophic destruction of the manatee’s food supply, destruction of manatee habitat, and resulting manatee malnourishment and starvation. The obliteration of the manatees’ food supply and the resulting manatee starvation deaths, as well their physical impairment and harm, result from DEP’s regulation, permitting and authorization of sewage disposal. DEP’s regulatory control of sewage includes:
- onsite sewage disposal systems, commonly known as and hereafter referred to as “septic tanks;” and
- sewage treatment facilities (which, together with the requisite attendant infrastructure of pipes, lift stations, pump stations, etc. shall hereafter be referred to as “wastewater treatment systems.”).
The septic tanks and wastewater treatment systems operating within the north IRL basin discharge high concentrations of ammonium and phosphates (“nutrients”) derived from human feces and urine (“sewage”)[4] into the north IRL. The ever-increasing human population in the north IRL basin yields ever increasing volumes of sewage containing toxic nutrients that leach into the north IRL. Sewage derived nutrients in the lagoon are the primary cause of the north IRL’s hyper-eutrophication[5] which has transformed the north IRL into an ecological dead zone, obliterating sea grass and the rich biodiversity that once called the IRL home.
The manatee’s primary food supply is sea grass. This obliteration of sea grass and even other macroalgae is the primary cause of manatee starvation, death and harm in the north IRL. Such death, physical harm and obliteration of habitat through the authorized release of toxic nutrients into the north IRL constitutes unlawful “take” under section 9 of the ESA.
Despite acknowledgement that nutrients derived from human sewage are the primary source of the hyper-eutrophication of the north IRL, DEP nonetheless continues to permit the installation of septic tanks which leach nutrients into the north IRL.
Further, DEP also continues to regulate, permit and authorize direct discharge of either raw or partially treated human sewage and nutrients into the north IRL basin from inadequate, overwhelmed, leaking sewage treatment systems, as well as directly into the lagoon during “wet weather conditions,” pursuant to the Indian River Lagoon System and Basin Act, Chapter 90-262, Laws of Florida. DEP exerts regulatory authority over the antiquated, overwhelmed, deteriorating, leaking sewage infrastructure that transports human wastewater through the north IRL basin. During transport, sewage leaks both into basin groundwater and sometimes directly into the lagoon, thereby further loading harmful nutrients into the north IRL.
This letter serves as official sixty-day notice under the ESA’s citizen suit provision[6] of the intent of the manatees and Bear Warriors United to file suit in the Middle District of Florida to enforce the ESA if you do not act within sixty days to begin to remedy the ongoing violations of the prohibition against “take” under section 9 of the ESA.[7] Providing immediate food relief to manatees in the north IRL is necessary.
Footnotes
- ↑ Bear Warriors United Executive Director, Katrina Shadix, may be reached at tel: 407-702-3576, email: bearwarriorsunited@gmail.com
- ↑ 16 U.S.C. § § 1538-1544
- ↑ This section of the IRL is designated by DEP as the North Indian River Lagoon in its watershed Basin Management Action Plans.
- ↑ Sewage includes not only human urine and feces, but also chemicals, pharmaceuticals, hormones, soaps and other products of human use.
- ↑ The Online Oxford Dictionary defines eutrophication as: "excessive richness of nutrients in a lake or other body of water, frequently due to runoff from the land, which causes a dense growth of plant life and death of animal life from lack of oxygen.”
- ↑ 16 U.S.C. § 1540(g).
- ↑ Id. at § 1538(a)(1).
