Wasting Away
April 04, 2025 at 11:08PMWhy are Florida manatees starving to death in unprecedented numbers? What has compromised the sea grass they favor as food? As it turns out, officials have known that nitrogen and phosphorus runoff from developed land and local industry has been polluting the Indian River Lagoon and hundreds of other waterways for decades. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection says they’ve spent millions to “reduce the effects of contamination.” For the Tampa Bay Times, Zachary T. Sampson, Shreya Vuttaluru, and Bethany Barnes report on why the government’s reactionary approach to polluted waterways has failed the manatees that call them home.
But the cleanup measures are far from comprehensive. Florida’s biggest sources of water pollution — agriculture and development — aren’t held to strict limits on the nitrogen and phosphorus that flow off sprawling farms and city streets. Chemicals spew from fertilizer and waste, eventually reaching fragile waters.
The Times found that every year, an estimated 100 million pounds of nitrogen and 4.5 million pounds of phosphorus could mar already contaminated waters, from the Panhandle to Miami.
That includes more than 3 million pounds of nitrogen and 400,000 pounds of phosphorus around the Lagoon — much of it from runoff. Developers and farmers have transformed tens of thousands of acres into subdivisions, ranches and shopping plazas over the last four decades.
Such contamination isn’t the type that draws quick condemnation like an oil or wastewater spill. It imposes a more insidious toll, one that can go unnoticed until it eventually explodes.
More picks on conservation
The Once and Future Woods
“Cathedrals, seed banks, and oaks: How to live in times of change.”
Protectors of Aqviqtuuq
“The northern tip of mainland Canada is a paradise of caribou, polar bears and Arctic char as yet undisturbed by mining. The residents of Taloyoak, Nunavut, are fighting to keep it that way.”
In Search Of The Continent’s Largest Shorebird
“Transcendent experiences, after all, are rare.”
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2025/04/04/wasting-away/
via IFTTT
Watch