Community Corner

Plan to Protect Long Island Sound Focuses on 'Non-point Source' Pollution

Run-off from sewers is a major concern when it comes to protecting the Sound's environmental health.

A coalition of environmental groups in Connecticut and New York state on Monday unveiled a long list of proposals in a 26-page "SoundVision Action Plan" to better protect Long Island Sound.

The proposals included more environmental regulations, the buying of land in strategic locations and building better sewer systems. To do all that, the report indicated, government funding would be required and public-private partnerships would be useful.

The extensive plan is "the first one of its kind since 1994," according to Rebecca Kaplan, a spokeswoman for the Connecticut Fund for the Environment, one of the key members of the coalition.

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“We’re lucky to have this resource [the Sound] — we can’t take it for granted,” said Nancy Seligson, a Mamaroneck councilwoman and New York co-chair of the Citizens Advisory Committee.

Seligson discussed water conservation steps that can be taken such as low-impact development (also known as LID), which provides for holding stormwater on site and treating it as a resource and not a waste product.

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Another conservation step she advocated is the spread of "green infrastructure," such as the retrofitting of existing development to hold water.  Examples include rain gardens and retention ponds in subdivisions.

The SoundVision Action Plan outlines four major components of change — protecting clean water, creating a safe place for wildlife to thrive, building environmentally viable Sound communities and investing in projects to preserve and sustain the Sound — along with specific action steps to be taken to execute these larger goals.

Each section of the plan lists goals for the near term (the next two years) and long term. For instance, in the section on protecting clean water, the report notes that some of the pollution in the sound comes from "non-point sources" — which can include anything from fertilizer on residential lawns to stormwater runoff from store parking lots and Interstate 95.

One of the near-term proposals to fix that problem is Action Step 2.2 on page 9 of the report. That proposal calls for government regulations in the construction of new housing or commercial developments. The regulations would mandate construction features that would help rainwater sink into the ground rather than run into stormwater sewers that dump into rivers, streams or the sound itself.

Action Step 2.2 is one of four near-term "immediate actions," concerning non-point pollution in the plan, which also has five more "intermediate actions" and three more "long-term actions."

Westchester County Legislator Judy Myers called the SoundVision Plan  “a great guide for regional planner," referring to the decision making process undertaken by coastal zone and other committees in regard to waterfront development.

The SoundVision Action Plan was developed and adopted by Save the Sound, together with the Nature Conservancy and the Citizens Advisory Committee of the Long Island Sound Study—a 38-member organization made up of representatives from organizations in Connecticut and New York state.

Funding to develop the plan was provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Long Island-based Sun Hill Foundation.

A copy of the plan is attached to this article. The coalition of groups that created the plan intends to discuss it at various "press events" around Long Island Sound, including one scheduled for Bridgeport on Aug. 15 and Greenwich on Sept. 6, the Connecticut Fund for the Environment announced.

As thunder and ominous clouds threatened to end the press conference early, NY state Senator Suzi Oppenheimer spoke about her contribution to the conservation efforts, including a bill she’s currently supporting that would impose a five cent fee on all plastic bags. These bags can often be found dangling from trees or washing up on shore, as sight she called “appalling.”

“It’s not simply for the fish, the birds and ecosystem — we seek to protect this unique landscape,” she said.

She said that yet another disturbing effect of a changing environment and an influx of nitrogen in Sound waters from algae, causing fish to literally leap out of the water to their deaths due to hypoxia, or lack of oxygen.

“The fish suffocate to death. It’s an awful site," Myers said, adding that the fish often popped up suddenly out of the water onto boat decks and at people’s feet, choking out their last breaths.

Some other pollutants in local waters include “plastic bags, hoops and loops that kill animals and ruin stormwater flow,” she said, referring to bags that block stormwater basins so they can’t run properly.

“This is very necessary advocacy," she said.


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