Florida’s waters are more polluted. That’s what the Times found.

After hundreds of manatees starved at the Indian River lagoon, the Tampa Bay Times decided to trace the crisis to its roots.

That meant examining water quality across Florida.

Sea grass, the main source of manatees, has been wiped out after decades of pollution in the lagoon. The once decorated sea grass bed has been transformed into an underwater desert. Manatee died and weakened and weakened.

The reporter spent more than a year reconstructing death and dived deep into the causes of contamination and its devastating consequences. They analyzed over 4 million test results from waterways in every corner of Florida and have been handed over for more than 20 years.

Here’s what they found:

1. Florida waterways are dangerously polluted and worsened.

It’s not just the Indian River lagoon. Nearly one of the state’s four waterways is contaminated by a form of nitrogen, phosphorus or other problems, which refer to chemical imbalances. The Times focused on examining the levels and trends of water bodies believed to be contaminated by state regulators.

More than half of the contaminated waterways analyzed by the reporters either showed worsening contamination or showed that they had not improved over the past 20 years.

The worsening oceans included places essential to wildlife and favourites among Floridians, such as lagoons, tributaries to Old Tampa Bay and slices of the Myacca River.

Almost three-quarters of springs reviewed by the Times have shown an increase in nitrate nitrate contamination over the past 25 years. They include beloved swimming holes and tourist attractions, attracting visitors from all over the world.

2. The state’s efforts to control pollution are not working.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection celebrates spending millions of dollars to curb pollution.

However, environmental regulators usually do not target to reduce waterway spill contamination until chemicals exceed obstacle levels. The state’s Environment Agency said federal law has guided its efforts and spelled out “reactionary” ways to restore water.

The department will develop goals and plans to reduce the chemical load. This is a drafting process that can take years. Florida has not created cleanup targets for most of the obstacles, the Times discovered. It remains at over 1,000 without such a goal.

Even if officials strengthen their efforts, more waterways are dirty rather than cleaner. It includes locations such as the Lagoon, the Suwanee River and Lake Okeechobee.

Around some impaired waters, the state has reported significant advances in controlling runoff. However, the Times found out that the environment offers another picture. Several segments are dirty, including the Caruso Hatchee River and Jackson Blue Springs.

3. The huge strip of Florida has become a residential development and farm.

An estimated 1.9 million acres of natural land have been converted to farms, roads, strip malls and subdivisions over the past 40 years, time analysis of land use and property data showed. This combines Hillsboro, Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando counties.

The Indian River lagoon alone overhauled over 30,000 acres of favorable assets such as residential developments, farms and golf courses during the same period.

Development has destroyed wetlands that filter and trap contamination, and is also increasing contamination.

For example, the portion close to the damaged part of the lagoon has resulted in over 100,000 cleanup systems, according to state estimates. The contaminated water from the septic tank flows through porous limestone and sand, eventually reaching lagoon-like springs and waterways.

4. Millions of pounds of chemicals enter the Florida waterways from the land.

Agriculture and development – Florida’s biggest source of water pollution – is not bound by strict restrictions on nitrogen and phosphorus flowing through vast farms and streets. The chemicals spit out of fertilizer and waste, eventually reaching the struggling waterway.

An estimated 100 million pounds of nitrogen and 4.5 million pounds of phosphorus each year can damage already contaminated water, from the Panhandle to Miami, The Times discovered.

This includes over 3 million pounds of nitrogen and 400,000 pounds of phosphorus around the contaminated portion of the lagoon. Much of it comes from leaks.

At high concentrations, chemicals can fuel devastating algae that kill fish, destroy sea grass beds, and ruin the habitat of manatees, turtles and dolphins.

5. Florida has lost tens of thousands of acres of sea grass.

More than 89,000 acres of sea grass have disappeared statewide, including waters that are plagued by recent poisonous red tide flowers, such as Tampa Bay and the Port of Charlotte.

The Times have identified a total loss of more than 22,000 acres of sea grass in the entire southwest Florida estuary, surrounded by cities from Clearwater to Fort Myers. They emerged between 2014 and 2022, ruining the nursery due to manatee fish and pastures, including Tampa and Sarasota Bayes.

North Florida also saw losses. In the rural Big Bend where the Suwanee River flows into the Gulf of Mexico, state scientists reported that over 32,000 acres of sea grass had disappeared during a similar period.

But there was no more dramatic loss than the Indian River Lagoon, however.

Between 2007 and 2021, over 60,000 acres of sea grass disappeared, leaving three-quarters of its previous footprints gone. Ultimately, estimates suggest that 98% of the sea grass that manatees may have grazed is gone.

6. Hundreds of manatees have been killed and dozens have been rescued at the height of the crisis.

In 2021 alone, more than 1,000 manatees have died in Florida. This is the most deadly year in animal records.

Many died of starvation, according to the state’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Others may die from cold stress or become weaker before being attacked by a boat.

Wildlife officials resorted to throw thousands of pounds of lettuce into the lagoon to help the survivors.

Along the Atlantic coast, more than 140 sick manatees were rescued from the beginning of their deaths until the end of spring 2023. At least half were believed to be starving, with over 30 of them being calves. Some were found to show bones through wrinkled skin.

They were rushed to statewide rehabilitation centers where they spent months or years recovering.

7. Scientists responding to the Manatee crisis were openly about its causes and severity of internal communication.

The Times reviewed more than 7,000 emails from staff within the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Committee around the time of his starvation death.

Scientists feared the worst before it happened. In 2019, three researchers from the agency contributed to a Journal Science letter, warning that the lagoon was getting worse. They wrote that decades of regulation and recovery attempts have not been kept safe from pollution. Sea grass was declining and manatees were among many at-risk animals.

As the severity of deaths became clear, researchers called the lagoon the “escape of crisis.”

In an email, one researcher said the state’s wildlife agency should “notify the world that there are five farm fires here.” He complained about “conservation caused by crisis.”

“Like a slow-moving hurricane, we have seen this catastrophe develop slowly over the past decade,” the researchers write.

US Fish and Wildlife Services employees are similarly dull in their draft memos, calling it “the result of human-raised degradation.”

8. The state has not resolved the root of the problem.

The levels of contamination in the Indian River lagoon are too high.

Still, state officials said conditions on the waterways have begun to improve. The area has been in several years without major algae blooming. Sea grass has returned in several places, but most are not. Scientists no longer feed manatee lettuce or see animals starving.

Experts warn that declaring victory is naive. The Lagoon has previously seen periods of algae-free recovery, but once again experienced another bad flower and backslide.