L.I. Sound report spurs local action
Anew report of Long Island Sound by an environmental advocacy group is spurring local officials and organizations to address some of the problems outlined — especially when it comes to poor water quality in some of the state’s harbors.
Save the Sound’s Long Island Sound report card for 2020 graded 50 bays and bay segments along the Connecticut and New York shorelines, while also outlining ways for municipalities to address their unique challenges of keeping the water clean.
“In a way, all of the grades are good news,” said Peter Linderoth, director of water quality for Save the Sound, “because what they’re providing is local, comparable, high-quality data where we are using them to establish a road map where we should focus our resources to protect Long Island Sound’s waters.”
The Inner Norwalk Harbor scored 59 percent and was the fourth worst 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 on the border of Darien and Stamford at 69 percent.
Since the release of the report earlier this month, municipal leaders and environmental officials have reached out to Save the Sound, looking for ways to improve or build upon work already being done to protect
The Inner Norwalk Harbor scored 59 percent and was the fourth worst 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 on the border of Darien and Stamford at 69 percent.
the water, he said.
“It’s encouraging to get those municipal leaders engaged early and we’re giving and providing a more detailed walk through of the report card,” Linderoth said.
Certain segments are already drawing attention. The Inner Norwalk Harbor, which was ranked as the worst of the bays and bay segments in the state, has spurred discussion on possible actions to take.
Linderoth said the impervious surfaces in the watershed around the Norwalk Harbor is nearly 20 percent, with anything over 12 percent categorized as a challenge for environmental efforts.
“Reducing impervious surfaces in that watershed would go a long way,” he said, adding there’s a lot of impervious surfaces near Norwalk Harbor, which is surrounded by the city and the concrete that comes in an urban area.
Capturing storm water discharge before it enters the inner portion of the harbor could also benefit the water quality in that area, Linderoth said. Restoration projects for some of the hardened shorelines could also lead to improvements.
The Inner Norwalk Harbor’s water quality has grown worse than the outermost parts because the harbor no longer has a good flushing ability, said Dick Harris, a Norwalk Water Quality Committee member and member of Norwalk Harbor Keeper.
“In the old days, when the tide came in, it would flood all the wetlands on both sides of the harbor,” he said. “Over the course of the years, those have all been replaced by structures, landfills, you name it.”
Harris said now the tide can come into a ditch, but the water can’t fan out or spread across natural surfaces.
“That’s the problem — poor flushing,” he said.
Flushing is also a challenge for the Black Rock Harbor in Bridgeport, according to Linderoth.
“One of the things about Black Rock Harbor is the inner portion is restricted,” he said. “So it inherently runs the risk of having an issue with tidal flushing, which means you have to work harder to cut down pollution to have good water quality.”
Black Rock Harbor, which received a score of 65 percent, has an added challenge: It is the site of the Bridgeport West Side Water Pollution Control Facility.
“It makes up well over 30 percent of the nitrogen low that goes into the Black Rock Harbor,” Linderoth said, adding this could be associated with the harbor’s low score.
In other areas, local officials are hoping to use the report as a guide to address their unique challenges when it comes to water quality.
In Darien, Scott Cove, Darien Harbor and Cove Harbor earned scores of 83 percent, 77 percent and 75 percent, respectively. But Holly Pond, which is on Darien’s border with Stamford, received a score of 69 percent, which was one of the lowest scores in the state, according to the report.
The town is starting to review the results, what they mean and what improvements can be made, said Bill Cavers, chairman of the Darien’s Advisory Commission on Coastal Waters.
“It makes a lot of sense to watch the water quality and make sure it keeps in good shape, or if there’s something wrong with it we try to fix it,” Cavers said.
The town has collected data over the past four years on its harbors and supplied that data to Save the Sound as part of its advocacy work, he said.
“It’s the first time in four years that we’ve really been able to step back and see someone judge what’s happening in our harbors and grade them,” he said. “Now we’re starting the review process of why they gave us this grade, is it fair and maybe the most important question: Is there something we can do about it?”
Cavers said that as a citizen scientist, he hopes to address some of the questions brought up by the report.
“I think (the Sound) is tremendously important,” he said. “I think arguably the coast of Darien is its finest asset.”
But interpreting the data correctly will be important in order to properly address future solutions for water cleanliness.
“The report card is focused on just a few indicators,” said Sarah Crosby, director of Harbor Watch. “They are looking at different types of data to indicate you have a nitrogen pollution problem.”
While the report is focused largely on nutrient pollution, she said low scores do not signify that it’s unsafe for people.
“There’s a lot of things that indicate different elements of water quality that aren’t included,” Crosby said. “That’s not a bad thing, but it’s just important to understand what the report card is telling you.”
Crosby said the unified water study — the study that collected the data for the report which Harbor Watch took part in — allows for apples-to-apples comparisons across the bays and harbors for the first time.
“It’s important to acknowledge the limitations of the report, but also there’s a lot of power in it to make these types of comparisons for the first time,” she said, adding this will help to better inform communities in their decision-making and planning.
In areas like the Norwalk Harbor, Crosby said she is seeing a big movement toward using more natural features along the shoreline. She said this includes promoting green infrastructure solutions instead of seawalls and preserving natural shoreline ecosystems such as marshes and beaches.
“There’s going to be some places where that’s more logistically feasible than others,” Crosby said. “But anything we can do in our local harbors to get closer to what our natural ecosystems used to look like before all that development took place — that will help water quality.”