Federal, state officials announce $3.8M in grants for the Long Island Sound

Federal and state officials from Connecticut and surrounding states on Monday announced $3.8 million in funds made available to local government, nongovernmental organizations and community groups to help protect the Long Island Sound.

The money, made available through the Long Island Sound Future Fund (LISFF) will be allocated in the form of 38 individual grants to aid in improving water quality and retoring habitat in the Long Island Sound watershed, which includes parts of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hanpshire, New York and Vermont. The grants will be matched by $4.6 million in funds from grantees, bringing the total funding for projects to $8.4 million in the coming year.

“The resources that have been announced today, the impact they will have, continue to demonstrate our commitment to improving the Long Island Sound and its local communities,” said U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn, said during the Monday call, which featured Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., members of New York’s congressional delegation, and representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency and other state and federal environmental organizations.

According to DeLauro, roughly $1.8 million of those funds will be distributed throughout Connecticut, helping to fund 16 different project. One will monitor water quality in nine waterways in the Norwalk River watershed. Another will fund environmental education in the Newhalville neighborhood of New Haven. Others will provide education on the Sound’s migratory shorebirds, facilitate the building of green infrastructure in Branford and Brookfield, reduce pollution in Newtown’s Pootatuck River watershed, restore coastal habitat in Milford and Stratford and remove a barrier to fish passage in Sasco Brook in Fairfield and Westport.

The grant is made possible through combined funds from the

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) and will reach more than 670,000 residents, in Connecticut and elsewhere, through environmental education program and conservation projects. The funds will result in the treatment of 5.4 million gallons of stormwater, installation of 23,000 square-feet of green infrastructure and prevention of 3,000 pounds of nitrogen from entering the Long Island Sound. Projects will also open 3.7 river miles and restore 108 acre of coastal habitat for fish and wildlife, in what is a critical environmental and economic resource in the region.

Pete Lopez, regional administrator for the EPA’s Region 2 office, said Monday that roughly 10 percent of American’s live within 50 mile of the shores of the Long Island Sound. And Schumer, in a pre-recorded message, said the Sound generates $9 billion in economic activity annually.

“In short, the sound is essential for our environment and our economy, and we must do everything to preserve it,” Schumer said.

The grant program is just a segment of the total federal allocation to the Long Island Sound, which in 2021, thanks in part to advocacy from legislators like DeLauro, who co-chairs the Long Island Sound Caucus and, as of Thursday, chairs the House of Representatives’ Appropriations Committee, totals $30. 4 million. That’s a $9.4 million increase over the current year’s budget.

That budget help fund things like the Long Island Sound Study and the LISFF, which was created in 2005 through the EPA’s Long Island Sound Office and the NFWF. Since its inception, the fund has invested $23 million in 450 project and generated an additional $40 million in grantee match, for a total of $63 million for regional and local projects.

It’s also brought about significant results. The projects have added 105 river miles for fish passage, restored 773 acres of critical fish and wildlife habitat, treated 200 million gallons of pollution, and educated and engaged 3 million people in protection and restoration of the Sound.

And, according to Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) Deputy Commissioner Mason Trumble, the preservation of the sound has important social and environmental justice implications.

As summers get increasingly hotter, especially in cities in the watershed, resident will increasingly go to the Sound to cool down. Access to clean, safe water is crucial.

“It’s incredibly important to keep public access available to the Long Island Sound,” Trumble said. “The work that we are doing, that you are doing, to protect Long Island Sound is incredibly important from a environmental justice perspective.”