The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service won’t begin experimenting with a chemical to remove harmful blue-green algae from Lake Mattamuskeet until April 2025, according to an order from U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Boyle.
Conservation groups Defenders of Wildlife and the NC Chapter of the Sierra Club have filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of North Carolina to stop the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from applying Lake Guard Oxy to four bays totaling 1,000 acres at the 40,276-acre Lake Mattamuskeet.
The chemical’s label states it is toxic to birds, and Lake Mattamuskeet, North Carolina’s largest freshwater lake, is the main feature of the Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge. Mattamuskeet is an iconic landmark in eastern North Carolina, known for the egrets, pintail ducks and tundra swans that use it as a rest stop on their migration routes.
“We are all so relieved that these birds will not be exposed to toxic chemicals this year while the court investigates the legal issues surrounding the Fish and Wildlife Service’s hasty and inadequate approval of this dangerous experiment,” Ramona McGee, a Southern senior Environmental Law Center lawyer representing the conservation groups said in a statement.
The federal government established the Mattamuskeet refuge to protect birds. Conservation groups claim the mission is in direct conflict with the use of a chemical whose label says it is toxic to birds.
The risk to wildlife is too great to use the algaecide, McGee argued at a hearing in Raleigh last month, especially because Lake Guard Oxy does not provide a permanent solution to Mattamuskeet’s water quality problems.
At the same May 31 hearing before Boyle, Young Kang, a U.S. Department of Justice attorney representing the Fish and Wildlife Service, argued that the purpose of applying the algaecide would be to create an environment in which submerged aquatic plants would can thrive in Mattamuskeet.
The lake has seen a total collapse of vegetation, Kang said. Taking steps to help it thrive again would provide essential food for birds that use the lake as a stopover on their migration, and for those who live there year-round, he argued.
“Ultimately, what the agency is trying to do here is restore Lake Mattamuskeet to its former glory,” Kang said.
Before applying the chemical, the lawsuit states, the Fish and Wildlife Service must issue a statement finding that its use is compatible with the purpose of the refuge, evaluate ways to reduce algae other than chemical treatment, and more thoroughly evaluate the impact that applying the chemical would have on and prepare an environmental impact statement, a more thorough analysis than the environmental assessment on the basis of which the agency approved the project.
“The agency failed to conduct its due diligence,” McGee said.
Jennifer Koches, a spokeswoman for U.S. Fish and Wildlife, declined to comment on the agreement to delay Lake Guard Oxy’s initial application, citing ongoing litigation.
In his order, Boyle indicated he plans to decide the case before April 1, 2025, when the next window for applying Lake Guard Oxy could open.
“We are pleased that common sense has prevailed and that there is more time to scrutinize this flawed plan. We hope that further investigation will determine that there is no defensible reason why an algaecide that is toxic to birds should be tested in one of the most important bird sanctuaries in this region,” said Erin Carey, acting director of the NC Sierra Club, in a statement.
Lake Guard Oxy’s trail to Mattamuskeet
The project has its roots in a $5 million allocation to the NC Policy Collaboratory that was part of the 2021 NC General Assembly budget, The News & Observer previously reported. That allocation is carefully written to give “a preference” for chemicals that float on the surface and then release their chemicals, two hallmarks of Lake Guard Oxy from BlueGreen Water Technologies.
Collaborating officials previously told The News & Observer they had no hand in drafting the provision, which came shortly after BlueGreen Water Technologies hired lobbyists to represent its interests in North Carolina.
After choosing BlueGreen as the company that would supply the algaecide, Collaboratory officials worked with company representatives to search five potential water bodies.
They settled on Lake Mattamuskeet, a shallow water area that has struggled for decades with pollutants from runoff, allowing harmful algae blooms to thrive there. In addition to pollution, the lake suffers from a large population of invasive carp that tear up the roots of submerged aquatic plants as they feed.
In 2016, Mattamuskeet was named to North Carolina’s Impaired Waters list due to its increased acidity and levels of chlorophyll a, a nutrient associated with pigmentation that is an indicator of algal blooms.
Before Lake Guard Oxy could be applied, the project still needed approval from both the Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the Mattamuskeet Reservation, and the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality.
While these were underway, the Collaboratory placed sensors in Lake Mattamuskeet to collect water quality data. That work is still happening, Claire Revere, a spokeswoman for Collaboratory, wrote in an email.
“Basic data collection is ongoing and the Collaboratory has made it clear to the supplier that the next phases of the project, including cost reimbursements for treatment activities, will be dependent on having all necessary state and federal authorizations in place,” Revere wrote.
Collecting data will be helpful, Revere added, in understanding the impacts harmful algal blooms have on various water bodies in North Carolina.
In March, the Fish and Wildlife Service released an environmental assessment for the project, approving the chemical for use in four bays, clarifying that the chemical would only be applied from boats and providing more specific details about when it would are applied to limit exposure to harmful substances. waterfowl.
The agency also determined that because the project is a pilot and limited to a small part of the lake, a more in-depth EIA is not necessary.
“This is not a huge, drastic approach. This is a very limited study,” Kang said at the May hearing.
But McGee argued that the risk to birds is too great, even if the chemical is applied to a relatively small part of the lake. The Fish and Wildlife Service did not consider data from BlueGreen showing toxicity to some bird species, McGee said:
“They’re basically saying, ‘Trust us. Trust us,” McGee told Boyle about possible toxicity.
McGee also argued that the agency had not considered whether a 2019 Mattamuskeet watershed restoration plan from the N.C. Coastal Federation would be a better approach to cleaning up the lake water than applying the algaecide.
In May, the NC Department of Environmental Quality issued a certificate allowing Lake Guard Oxy to be applied to Lake Mattamuskeet beginning June 1.
Days later, before the state’s window opened, the conservation groups filed their lawsuit.
NC Reality Check is an N&O series that holds those in power accountable and shines a light on public issues impacting the Triangle or North Carolina. Do you have a suggestion for a future story? E-mail realitycheck@newsobserver.com
This story was produced with funding from the Hartfield Foundation and Green South Foundation, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners, as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O has full editorial control over the work. If you would like to help support local journalism, please consider signing up for a digital subscription. You can do that here.
