Take action for the lagoon.

Three things you can do at home.

The tools above open the official state and county systems, or handle a task directly. These next three are ongoing habits — the everyday work that keeps nitrogen and phosphorus out of the water.

1. Cut your fertilizer.

Reducing unnecessary fertilizer lowers the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus available to wash or leach into the lagoon watershed. Even a single household's fertilizer reduction, multiplied across a neighborhood, matters at scale.

Follow the current fertilizer rules for your city or unincorporated Brevard County, including seasonal restrictions, setbacks, and any exemptions. Consult the applicable official ordinance or county guidance for your address rather than relying on a single county-wide summary.

• Follow Brevard’s summer fertilizer restriction (June 1 – September 30) — no nitrogen or phosphorus fertilizer during those months. The ordinance exists because summer rains flush unabsorbed fertilizer straight to the lagoon.
• Use slow-release fertilizer the rest of the year, and only when soil test results say your lawn actually needs it.
• Do not fertilize before a rain event. Wait for a dry stretch so what you put down has time to be absorbed.
• Replace turf with native Florida landscaping where you can. Native plants need little to no fertilizer once established, and they support pollinators the lagoon watershed also depends on.

2. Get on sewer if you can.

If your house is on septic, eligible property owners may qualify for county assistance. Current limits and requirements vary by program: advanced septic upgrades, septic-to-sewer connections and private lateral repairs have separate eligibility and reimbursement rules. County planning estimates use about 47 pounds of nitrogen per year for a conventional residential septic system; actual loading and the reduction achieved by a project vary by property and technology. See the current Brevard County Homeowner Grants page for current amounts and requirements.

To check if a septic-to-sewer conversion is available or planned for your neighborhood, contact Brevard County Utility Services.

3. Contact your county commissioner.

The five members of the Brevard Board of County Commissioners oversee the SOIRL program, adopt the annual project plan, and set watershed policy (fertilizer ordinances, sewer expansion priorities, stormwater standards). They read constituent email. Tell them the lagoon matters to you and why.