Long Island Sound Healthier, say Environmentalists, Officials

The environmental health of Long Island Sound has shown some improvements, according to state and federal officials who spoke at a recent event in Greenwich where an environmental coalition announced its agenda to further improve the Sound.

“I live on the Mianus River, where the fish ladder was installed, and it just dramatically improved the bird life,” said U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, a Greenwich Democrat, as boats peacefully glided by in Greenwich Harbor, as seen through the windows of Indian Harbor Yacht Club. “My two daughters are on Long Island Sound all summer long.”

Himes, who represents the Fourth District, including Norwalk, said one of the best pieces of news he heard about the Sound came two years ago “when they reopened the clam beds here in Greenwich to oystering—last winter I must have eaten 20 dozen of them last year myself—so keep up the good work.”

Himes and others spoke at a news conference where the Citizens Advisory Committee, a coalition of environmental and other groups in New York and Connecticut to further improve the Sound.

Various officials said environmental groups have made progress toward improving the health of the sound in several ways during the past two decades.

“The fact that fish from this area can once again run up and down these rivers—I don’t think any of us who got into this game decades ago thought ‘we’ll see a day when herring will be re-introduced into these rivers,’ because they were so polluted no one could envision it,” said Curt Spalding, Region 1 Administrator for the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

“But now we are. We’re seeing fish ladders being installed on our northeast estuaries. So some very powerful things are happening that are reconnecting these estuaries to their communities—not just along the coast, but upstream—and there are new ideas out there, in terms of how we can utilize our water.”

Daniel C. Esty, the newly-appointed commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), said “a “great amount has been accomplished during the 25 years that the Long Island Sound cleanup efforts have been going.”

“So don’t say we haven’t made any progress—that’s one of the arguments going on in Washington right now,” he said. “The limited resources spent here, in the scope of overall environmental spending, have done tremendous amount of good.”

Esty said since 1998, the DEP, working with other agencies and groups, has preserved over 860 acres of habitat and restored watersheds in both Connecticut and New York.

“Since then, over 150 miles of migratory river corridors has been restored—we have fish passages that are bringing fish up through the dams in many cases,” he said. “In just the last six years the Long Island Sound Futures Fund has provided more than $4.5 million in grants to communities along the Sound, to restore habitats, to reduce non-point source pollution, to foster a next generation of environmental stewardship.”

George Pavlou, EPA Region 2 Deputy Administrator, also pointed out several milestones, including a significant reduction in the amount of nitrogen going into Long Island Sound through the CT DEP’s Nitrogen Trading Program.

“I’m glad to say that in 2010 LISS partners reduced nitrogen by 8,385 pounds a day from the previous year,” Pavlou said. “That’s the biggest year-over-year reduction since reduction efforts started in the early 1990s. Overall more than 27 million fewer pounds of nitrogen are going into the sound this year compared to when we started.”

In addition “numerous fish passage projects have been successful thanks to the collaborative efforts of local, state, federal and private partners,” Pavlou said, adding that in Smithtown, NY, “all the dams have been removed from the rivers, which enables the fish to spawn and create new habitats.”

And then there’s the return of dolphins to Long Island Sound—another sign of its improved health:

“Back in 1990 one of the visions of the Audubon Society as part of its ‘Listen to the Sound’ campaign, was to see dolphins come back to the sound,” Pavlou said. “Well, lo and behold, a large pod of bottle-nose dolphins, more than 100 in the past summer, have repeated their visits to the Sound, to forage, much to the chagrin of the fishermen.”

“We’ve also seen the return of river otter in the rivers and steams and I believe some people have seen some mink as well,” Pavlou added.

Pavlou said the EPA has compiled data showing the economic return on investment for environmental projects for water bodies such as the Sound. He said every dollar the EPA contributed to Sound projects funded since 2006 “has returned on average $67—that’s not a bad rate on retur—that’s a sound investment.”

State Sen. L. Scott Frantz, a Greenwich Republican, also commended the CAC’s efforts, saying, “with your good work, maybe one day we’ll see an Atlantic salmon coming down Long Island Sound in search of one of our beautiful rivers."

Editor's note: This article, in a different format, was previously published by Greenwich Patch.

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