How you can help:

Show your support for biodiversity and the reinitiation of the EPA’s water quality standards of Florida’s Indian River Lagoon to save the manatees main food source to keep them from starving to death. Please share and encourage your family and friends to sign this petition, a little effort can go a long way. If you can, please donate to earthjustice.org to help initiate the efforts of the law suit against the EPA for neglecting these manatees.

Background:

The EPA abandoned manatees to Florida's inadequate water quality measures. 

• Florida has repeatedly failed to rein in sources of pollution that cause algae outbreaks, such as wastewater-treatment plants, leaking septic systems, and fertilizer runoff. 
• The algae outbreaks kill off the seagrass that manatees eat.
• The EPA approved the state’s water-quality standards, concluding they would not “adversely affect” manatees.
• Under the Endangered Species Act, the EPA must consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to approve state water-quality measures to ensure they protect threatened and endangered wildlife.
• In December 2021, after hundreds of manatees died from starvation, conservation groups threatened to sue the EPA if it didn't reinitiate consultation over the measures (it didn't).

Without their main food source, Florida’s iconic manatees have been dying.

• Excess levels of nitrogen and phosphorus from pollutants killed thousands of acres of seagrass in Indian River Lagoon last year.
• Manatees return to the lagoon’s warm water each winter to feed on seagrass. The lagoon is one of the most biodiverse estuaries in North America.
• In a Band-Aid effort, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission announced emergency plans to feed the manatees romaine lettuce last winter and set up a temporary field response station at the Indian River Lagoon.

Conservation groups are demanding that the EPA fulfill its responsibility under law to protect the manatees.

• Earthjustice is representing three conservation groups in this case: Save the Manatee Club, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Center for Biological Diversity.
• These groups are pushing the court to make EPA restart consultations with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service to reassess its approval of Florida's water quality measures for the Indian River Lagoon.
• "Manatees need clean water to live in — it's that simple,” says Earthjustice attorney Elizabeth Forsyth. “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.”

This section was pasted from Earthjustice’s post on LinkedIn titled “We’re Suing: Manatees Need More than Lettuce from our Leaders”