De-Sliming Florida’s Waterways

Florida waterways are choked by toxic green slime, thanks to sewage, fertilizer and animal waste runoff. Earthjustice is seeking protections under the Clean Water Act to clean up the dangerous mess that is tarnishing one of the nation’s greatest water states.

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Case Overview

Florida is a water state, known for its rivers, creeks, mangrove swamps and wetlands. But what was once pristine has become sullied by fluorescent green slime—the toxic result of sewage, manure and fertilizer pollution, which triggers outbreaks of algae. As a result, health officials continually warn Floridians and tourists not to come into contact with the algae-choked water.

The Clean Water Act is intended to protect people against exactly this kind of preventable pollution. In 2008, Earthjustice sued the EPA to force the agency to set standards to protect Florida’s waters from outbreaks of toxic slime.

In 2009, the EPA agreed as part of a settlement to set enforceable, legal limits on the pollution that generates toxic slime in Florida’s waterways. The agency set limits, but the state of Florida issued its own weaker limits in an attempt to displace the federal rules. Earthjustice challenged these limits, but a Florida judge sided with industry.

Now, the EPA is considering ceding control over much of Floridian waters to the state and its toothless, industry-created pollution plan. Earthjustice is challenging the EPA in an attempt to ensure that federal, enforceable standards are put in place to protect Floridians and their precious water resources.

Dense mats of algae cover Santa Fe River near Gainesville, FL during an outbreak on Memorial Day weekend in 2012.
Dense mats of algae cover Santa Fe River near Gainesville, FL during an outbreak on Memorial Day weekend in 2012. (John Moran / Earthjustice)

Case Updates

January 31, 2022 In the News: WOSU

Columbus Zoo takes in four manatees from Florida, a species on the brink

Elizabeth Forsyth, Attorney, Biodiversity Program, Earthjustice: “EPA is the federal agency that at the end of the day is responsible for ensuring that our nation waters are clean and that species like the Florida manatee are protected and can thrive, and at the end of the day, it’s EPA who needs to come in and…

A toxic algae outbreak on southwest Florida’s Caloosahatchee River in June of 2011, turned the water a freakish green, killed fish, and released a nauseating stench for weeks.
June 30, 2016 Press Release

State Ag Department Trying To Conceal Information on Polluting Fertilizer

Earthjustice demands public accountability

A fluorescent green toxic algae outbreak on St. Johns River on November 12, 2013.
August 6, 2014 Article

In Florida, Toxic Algae is a Year-Round Fight

For those of us living here in sunny Florida, noxious green slime outbreaks like the one that shut Toledo, Ohio's, water system, are now a year-round occurrence.