The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to halt for this year its plans to turn Lake Mattamuskeet — the 40,000-acre centerpiece of an iconic migratory bird sanctuary — into a testing ground for a chemical that is toxic to birds, thanks to a lawsuit filed by the Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife.
Read the full news release at SELC's website.
Plans had been underway to start the toxic algaecide experiment this summer at Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge in eastern North Carolina and run through the end of October, then resume in April 2025. The conservation groups asked a federal court to issue a preliminary injunction to block USFWS from proceeding with the tests.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires the product to carry a label warning it is toxic to birds. Following a May 31 hearing on the request in federal court in Raleigh, USFWS voluntarily agreed to freeze its plans.
Instead of proceeding with the experiment this year, USFWS will work with the litigants to try to resolve the merits of the case in hopes of reaching a final decision before the April 2025 restart date. Late Tuesday (June 18), the court entered an order confirming the agreement and setting the schedule for briefing the case.
"We’re glad that common sense has prevailed and provided more time to scrutinize this flawed plan," said Erin Carey, acting director of the N.C. Sierra Club. "We hope that closer review will prove that there’s no defensible reason why an algaecide that’s toxic to birds should be tested at one of this region’s most important bird sanctuaries."
A plan is already underway to improve water quality and reduce algae blooms in the lake, but after North Carolina’s General Assembly appropriated millions of North Carolina taxpayer dollars to test the algaecide, USFWS approved its use in Lake Mattamuskeet, even though the chemical can kill birds and corrode their beaks. In recent years, the Florida legislature has spent millions applying this product to several lakes and rivers, where it has failed to provide a lasting solution to harmful algal blooms that keep people from using the water.
The lawsuit filed May 20 in the Eastern District of North Carolina alleges violations of the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act. It asks the court to block the plan until USFWS conducts a full analysis that protects the mission and purpose of the wildlife refuge, and takes a hard look at the toxic algaecide’s harms and the available alternatives.