TALLAHASSEE, Florida, July 18, 2008 (ENS) – Today, five environmental groups filed a lawsuit to compel the federal government and the state of Florida to set numeric limits on the excess nutrients which trigger harmful blooms of blue-green algae.

Algae blooms are fouling Florida’s beaches, lakes, rivers, and springs, threatening public health, and closing swimming areas. Last month, a water treatment plant serving 30,000 Florida residents was shut down after a toxic blue-green algae bloom on the Caloosahatchee River threatened the plant’s source water supply.

The public interest law firm Earthjustice is representing the Florida Wildlife Federation, Conservancy of Southwest Florida, Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida, St. John’s Riverkeeper, and Sierra Club in the case filed in federal court for the Northern District of Florida.

The groups are suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, challenging what they say is a decade-long delay by the state and federal governments in setting limits for nutrient pollution.

In 1998, the U.S. EPA determined that prompt development of numeric standards for the nutrients phosphorus and nitrogen by the state of Florida was necessary to meet the requirements of the Clean Water Act. The groups claim that EPA action is required to achieve sufficient protection of Florida’s waters because Florida has failed to develop these standards.

Whenever it rains, runoff from factory farms, fertilized landscapes, and agricultural operations pour fertilizer residue containing phosphorus and nitrogen as well as livestock waste into Florida’s rivers and lakes. These contaminants are referred to as nutrients.

Blue-green algae on a Florida lake
(Photo courtesy Florida DEP)

“As the old saying goes, this stuff tends to flow downhill. Unfortunately, national treasures like the Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf of Mexico are being overloaded,” said Earthjustice attorney David Guest. “Measurable standards are the first step in restoring the quality of our nation’s rivers, lakes and oceans.”

The lawsuit has nationwide implications. Currently, Florida and most other states have only vague limits regulating nutrient pollution. Today’s legal action seeks a court order requiring that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency impose quantifiable – and enforceable – limits for those contaminates in Florida.

The EPA gave Florida a 2004 deadline to set limits for nutrient pollution, which the state disregarded. The EPA was then supposed to set limits itself, but failed to do so. EPA recently approved a plan that would have limits being “proposed” by 2011.

“Each time an extension is granted, it essentially guarantees these contaminants will continue to flow into our rivers, lakes, and oceans – endangering our wildlife and threatening our economy,” said Manley Fuller, president of the Florida Wildlife Federation.

Blue-green algae – also known as cyanobacteria – produce “dermatoxins” that can create severe dermatitis and are known tumor promoters; “neurotoxins” which interfere with nerve cell function; and “hepatotoxins” which attack the liver. Exposure to blue-green algae toxins through ingestion, skin contact or inhalation can cause rashes, skin and eye irritation, allergic reactions, gastrointestinal upset, serious illness, and even death, the groups argue in their complaint.

Nutrient contamination is altering water bodies all over Florida, the plaintiff groups claim.

As Earthjustice notes in a letter it sent to the EPA, “Potentially toxigenic cyanobacteria have been found statewide, including river and stream systems such as the St. Johns River in the Northeast Region, the Caloosahatchee River in the Southwest Region, and the Peace and Kissimmee Rivers in the Central Region.”

“In the Southeast Region, toxin levels in the St. Lucie River and estuary during an algae bloom in 2005 were 300 times above suggested drinking water limits and 60 times above suggested recreational limits,” Earthjustice wrote. “Warning signs had to be posted by local health authorities warning visitors and residents not to come into contact with the water.”

“Lake Okeechobee, which is categorized under state regulations as a drinking water source, is now subject to almost year-round blue-green algae blooms as a result of nutrient pollution,” wrote Earthjustice.

Inland freshwater resources are also affected by pollution from agricultural runoff and other sources: half of the state’s rivers and more than half of its lakes were found to have poor water quality in a 2006 report by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The problem is compounded when nutrient-poisoned waters are used as drinking water sources. Disinfectants such as chlorine and chloramine can react with the dissolved organic compounds, contaminating drinking water with mutagenic chemical byproducts.

“This level of pollution is hard to believe in modern America,” said Frank Jackalone of the Sierra Club.

Andrew McElwaine of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida said, “It is time for the federal government and Florida to step up to the plate and enforce clean water standards for the public. Citizens shouldn’t have to resort to lawsuits to get the government to make sure they have clean water, but unfortunately, that’s what we have to do today.”

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COLUMBIA, South Carolina, January 14, 2008 (ENS) – Wildlife biologists and park rangers are monitoring area reservoirs and lakes for signs of a new fatal bird disease that primarily affects waterfowl and raptors.

Biologists are concerned with the emergence of avian vacuolar myelinopathy, AVM, in South Carolina. The disease has been implicated in the death of over 100 eagles and suspected in the death of thousands of American coots in Southeastern reservoirs since it was first documented in Arkansas in 1994.

South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, DNR, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have been collaborating to monitor reservoirs that may support potentially toxic blue green algae, the suspected agent of AVM.

AVM affects the central nervous system of waterfowl and raptors that consume the suspect toxic algae growing on submerged aquatic vegetation in some Southeastern reservoirs.

Research supports the working hypothesis that waterfowl such as American coots feeding on freshwater aquatic plants are susceptible to toxins found in algae growing on the leaves and stems.

Once ingested, toxins damage the birds’ central nervous systems and affected birds become uncoordinated and lose their ability to fly. This makes them vulnerable to raptors, such as eagles, that easily target affected birds. Eagles may then contract the disease from consuming infected prey.

Still, biologists note an 8.5 percent increase in eagle nesting per year since surveys were begun 30 years ago.

In South Carolina, the disease was first observed in 1998 on Lake Thurmond, a 70,000 acre reservoir on Savannah, Broad and Little Rivers bordered by South Carolina and Georgia and managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

According to Shirley Willard, a ranger with the Corps of Engineers, 46 eagles have been found dead at Lake Thurmond, and AVM is suspected as the cause of their deaths. The losses translate to the disappearance of six eagle nesting territories, she said.

According to DNR wildlife biologist Tom Murphy, a coordinator of South Carolina’s Midwinter Eagle Survey, “Eagle nesting below Highway 378 in our state has basically been extinguished, and we suspect this is a direct effect of this emerging wildlife disease.”

Only after fresh bird carcasses are submitted for necropsy and microscopic examination to the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study at the University of Georgia, or to other qualified wildlife health laboratories, is AVM implicated in a bird’s death.

Because eagles nest in obscure areas, biologists and rangers alone cannot ensure that all affected birds will be found. Willard says, “The more eyes we have out there helping us to monitor and track this disease, the better.”

The public can help with the research and documentation of the disease if they encounter waterfowl or raptors exhibiting strange behaviors affecting movements or happen upon carcasses while in these areas where characteristics exist that may result in AVM-affected birds – submerged aquatic vegetation, presence of American coots and signs of eagle nests or eagle sightings.

The public is asked to call one of the following to report these types of observations among waterfowl or raptors:
# J.Strom Thurmond U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Project Office: 1-800-533-3478
# Savannah District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Project Office: 1-800-944-7207
# South Carolina DNR: 843-953-9300

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WEST PALM BEACH, Florida, January 2, 2008 (ENS) – A lawsuit by three environmental groups seeking to force the South Florida Water Management District to obtain federal discharge permits for pumping water into Florida’s largest lake has attracted a large number of opponents.

Nine states and dozens of agencies and organizations filed legal briefs in December in support of the South Florida Water Management District, SFWMD, and U.S. government position in a federal court case involving state authority over state water resource management.

The case dates to 2002, when several groups filed suit to require federal discharge permits for moving water through three district pump stations on the south shore of Lake Okeechobee.

The groups – Friends of the Everglades, Florida Wildlife Federation, and Fishermen Against Destruction of the Environment, all represented by Earthjustice – contend that millions of gallons of polluted water coming off of half a million acres of sugar cane fields and cities are pumped into Lake Okeechobee by the South Florida Water Management District.

“The discharge contaminates drinking water supplies and fertilizes toxic blue-green algae blooms,” says Earthjustice, which filed suit demanding the district obtain Clean Water Act permits for its discharges and comply with water quality standards in the lake.

Masses of vegetation at the S-3
pump station along the south
shore of Lake Okeechobee.
The brown water color indicates
pollution. (Photo courtesy SFWMD)

On December 11, 2006, a federal district judge in Miami ruled that the district must comply with the Clean Water Act.

And on June 15, 2007, a federal court issued an injunction requiring the district to apply for pollution permits to engage in pumping dirty water into the lake.

The district complied with the injunction but filed an appeal to address the issue of federal-state jurisdiction.

The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, NPDES, permits are most commonly used “to regulate point-source discharges, such as from industrial activities or municipal waste operations,” the district said.

State water quality programs are used to regulate all other discharges, including water transfers to provide for flood control, water supply, environmental restoration and other public needs.

“This NPDES case has implications that could impair water resources management across the nation,” said SFWMD Governing Board Chairman Eric Buermann. “We are heartened by the breadth of support for the district’s position that a state’s water resources should continue to be managed by the individual states, as they have been since the Clean Water Act was written 35 years ago.”

It is for the appeal that the nine states and federal agencies filed briefs in support of the district, written to emphasize to the court the case’s serious and widespread impacts.

Representing a wide range of interests, the briefs came from the National League of Cities, the National Hydropower Association, the American Farm Bureau Federation, 23 water resource organizations and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Briefs from the district and from the U.S. Department of Justice representing all federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation and the Department of Agriculture, were filed December 14, 2007.

More legal briefs will be prepared for the court over the next several months, and oral arguments will be heard by a panel of three federal judges. The decision is expected in late 2008.

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