Politics & Government
Environmentalists Worked to Build a Long Island Sound Coalition
Improving the economic as well as environmental health of Long Island Sound was a goal of the Citizens Advisory Committee of the Long Island Sound Study.
Officials involved with a coalition of environmental and other groups now pushing a plan to improve Long Island Sound said they worked hard to get a set of goals that business, recreational and other interests would support.
Curt Johnson, co-chair of the Citizens Advisory Committee of the Long Island Sound Study, said that the group has 38 members—19 in New York and 19 in Connecticut—represent a diverse range of entities.
“These are not just environmental groups, they are also business groups, and they are municipal groups,” he said, adding that the CAC not only focuses on how to improve the Sound’s environmental health, but also how it can be better utilized as an economic engine.
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Johnson and others spoke at the Indian Point Yacht Club in Greenwich, where the CAC to improve the Sound's environment.
About a year and half ago, Johnson said, members of the CAC, recognizing that in improving the Sound’s health, asked “What is next for Long Island Sound? We’ve made some progress but where do we go now?” The group then set about creating the proposed Action Agenda.
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Johnson said the CAC is a great example of building “communities that work.”
“This is an investment in the Sound—that brings people to the Sound—and stirs all kinds of economic activity, attracts all kinds of talent to this area,” he said. “It’s critical that we invest in an economically vibrant Long Island Sound.”
Mark Tedesco, director of the Long Island Sound Study at the EPA Long Island Sound Office in Stamford, said CAC helped improve the SoundVision process by allowing the people and groups who use the Sound to have a stronger voice in the environmental actions being taken.
“The key is not to have management in the abstract—rather that you’re really responding to the people who vote along Long Island Sound, the people who fish or go swimming or just like to walk along its shores,” Tedesco said.
“This group came together to see what everyone wanted … on the local, state and federal level … and worked in a coordinated way to realize that vision.”
Editor's note: See also:
- For more information about the Long Island Sound Study and its Action Agenda: www.longislandsoundstudy.net/
- For more information about the CAC’s SoundVision: www.lisoundvision.org
