New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
New report shows improvements needed for Sound
The water in nearly half of Long Island Sound’s bays and bay segments is in bad health — with the inner Norwalk Harbor ranked as one of the worst, according to newly released information from an environmental advocacy group.
“For these bays, water quality improvements require local action,”Jason Krumholz, senior environmental scientist with the McLaughlin Research Corp., said at a Tuesday press conference held at the Canal Dock Boathouse in New Haven. “They require
local communities in the areas of land that drains directly to those bays and bay segments.”
Save the Sound presented the results of its Long Island Sound report card for 2020 at the waterfront press conference. The nonprofit organization has studied the Sound for decades, but this year’s report is the first to grade 50 bays and bay segments along the Connecticut and New York shorelines, according to U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District.
“This granularity is vital,” she said of the report. “The quality of the nearby open water does not predict the quality of water in adjacent bays.”
The Inner Norwalk Harbor scored 59 percent and was ranked as the worst of the bays and bay segments tested in the state, and fourth worse overall in the Sound. Other low scores in the state included Wequetequock Cove in Stonington at 60 percent, Black Rock Harbor in Bridgeport at 65 percent, and Holly Pond in Darien at 69 percent.
But the report contains a tale of highs and lows, DeLauro said. Some of the highs showed coordinated efforts in and around the Sound to clean it over the past decade are working, she said.
“Yet new testing made possible by federal funding shows that only 44 percent of the bays or the bay segments received a grade of B or above,” DeLauro said. “Nearly half received D or worse.”
The elevated presence of seaweed and algae — both of which are evidence of pollution runoff into the Sound — is troubling, she said. Low oxygen levels in the water also cause crab, fish and shellfish to die or evade the areas.
“For our region, the Long Island Sound is a treasure with a significant ecological and economic value,” DeLauro said. “More than 25 million citizens live within an hour drive of its shores, and it contributes nearly $31 billion to the regional economy.”
The Western Narrows, the region around New York City, received a failing grade but im
provements are underway, Krumholz said. The Eastern Narrows, which extends from Pelham Bay Park in New York to Stamford, received a a grade of C, he said.
But the Central and Eastern Basins, which stretch from the Housatonic River to the Atlantic
Ocean, and the Western Basin around Bridgeport scored well.
“While the Western Basin still has considerable need for improvement, the scores in all three regions indicate waters that are supportive of a broad diversity of aquatic life,” Krumholz said, adding the basins were less developed than the narrows.
Upgrading the aging sewer structures, planting more buffers on riverbanks, reducing lawn fertilizer and more will help improve the Sound, said Peter Linderoth, director of water quality for Save the Sound.
“These calls to action are at the heart of the report card effort,” he said.
But the gradual progress made in the Sound in the early 2000s has begun to flatten out, Krumholz said. The impacts of climate change and increased population are also starting to show, he said.
Investments in improved water quality such as sewage treatment upgrades and green infrastructure have produced positive results, he said, but continued vigilance is required.
“This is a really critical time,” Krumholz said. “We know that we can do this. We have to keep going, we have to keep at it.”