Lawsuit launched to force Federal Government to protect endangered species from nuclear power plant in Florida
JENSEN BEACH, Florida—Turtle Island Restoration Network and Beyond Nuclear filed a formal notice today of their intent to sue the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for failing to protect endangered species from illegal intake and harm at the St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant in Jensen Beach, Florida.
For decades, the reactor site’s cooling water intake system, which draws in nearly three billion gallons of sea water daily, has routinely captured, harmed and killed thousands of marine animals, most notably endangered and threatened species of sea turtle as well as the endangered smalltooth sawfish. But it’s not just countless species of marine wildlife—two scuba divers were sucked through the unprotected cooling intake park on separate occasions, one of whom is suing the power plant for being entrained at the plant in 2016.
“For years, the National Marine Fisheries Service has knowingly allowed the nuclear industry to get away with murder, allowing endangered species to be sucked towards the edge of extinction in the name of unsustainable energy,” said Turtle Island Restoration Network Executive Director Todd Steiner. “Almost drowning humans hasn’t even compelled the federal government to take action, so we are.”
…FPL has been obligated to limit the number of endangered species killed by the plant’s intake system since its operating license was amended in 2001. In 2016, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) issued new rules that allow FPL to suck 1,143 protected sea turtles from the ocean into the St. Lucie nuclear power plant’s intake canal, with specific limits for each of the five species—143 more than before. In one year alone, the plant captured 933 sea turtles….
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Photo from Turtle Island Restoration Network.
