Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' private aerospace firm Blue Origin wants permission to discharge a massive quantity of wastewater into a lagoon that the Environmental Protection Agency deemed a "natural treasure," Gizmodo reported.
What's happening?
Indian River Lagoon is one of the most biodiverse estuaries in North America, "responsible for one-seventh of the region's economy," according to Florida State Parks.
Like Bezos' Blue Origin, the waterway is situated on Florida's Space Coast, named for its proximity to Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center.
Blue Origin pursued a permit to discharge 490,000 gallons of wastewater destined for Indian River Lagoon each day, and that figure did not appear to be random.
WTXV reported that 500,000 gallons was the daily threshold to trigger more stringent environmental oversight.
Users on Reddit's r/321, a subreddit named for a Florida area code, were chagrined by the proposal and accused Blue Origin and Bezos of sticking Floridians with the tab — ecologically and economically.
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"The wastewater plants that serve the space center are at capacity … Brevard County needs over $130 million to expand these wastewater plants. Why can't the facilities that need to use the plants pay for it?" one commented.
Why is this concerning?
A spokesperson for Blue Origin told Gizmodo that the firm sought only the "renewal" of an existing permit, but locals remained suspicious, as a Change.org petition detailed.
"The Indian River Lagoon is already fighting for its life. Decades of nutrient pollution, algae blooms, seagrass collapse, habitat loss, and record manatee deaths have pushed this fragile ecosystem to the edge," it began.
One Lagoon, an organization established to protect Indian River Lagoon, emphasized its fragility in the face of increasing ecological stressors, citing overexploitation of its resources, industrial contamination, and wastewater discharge as major contributing factors.
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On Dec. 3, Florida Today profiled the conflict between Blue Origin and locals concerned about the health of the lagoon, quoting advocate Stel Bailey.
Blue Origin "could be building reservoirs. They could be filtering and reusing water. They have thousands of acres in the wildlife refuge to create regional retention systems. They are brilliant engineers," Bailey said at a meeting on Dec. 2.
"So why are they being instructed to dump into the lagoon instead of being challenged to innovate?"
The outlet also reported that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection had "fined Blue Origin several times in recent years for permit violations," largely ones relating to alleged improper management of industrial wastewater.
What's being done about it?
Florida Today indicated that locals had until Dec. 18 to submit requests for a public hearing to the DEP.
Gizmodo hinted that the plan was likely to go forward, but a groundswell of public outcry could halt it.
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