SPRING 2018 SOUND UPDATE NEWSLETTER OF THE LONG ISLAND SOUND STUDY Long Island Sound Study’s Year In Review: 2017 CONTENTS I admit to having felt some ecosystem envy in the past, We are now seeing the improvements in water quality. a longing look at the progress made in restoring the Over the past five years, the average peak area of waters 1 Director’s Tampa Bay estuary. After 60 Minutes profiled the Bay’s with unhealthy levels of dissolved oxygen in Long Island slimy and smelly beaches in a 1974 investigative report, Sound was 95 square miles, less than half the pre-2000 Remarks the surrounding communities woke up and said enough. average of 205 square miles. Talk about getting into Infrastructure investments upgraded sewage treatment. shape. The area of waters with less than 3 milligrams/ 2 Projects Map County government initiated comprehensive water quality liter (mg/l) of dissolved oxygen in 2017 was 70 square monitoring to document problems and diagnose solutions. miles. The area of waters below this water quality 4 Clean Waters Aggressive reductions in nutrient pollution improved standard in 2015 and 2017 were the second and third and Healthy water quality, resulting in lush seagrass meadows returning smallest recorded in the past 31 years of monitoring. The to levels not seen since the 1950s. Restoring the Balance is severity of the problem has also declined, with no open Watersheds what the Tampa Bay Estuary Program calls it. Now Tampa waters below 1 mg/l dissolved oxygen in seven of the Bay, whether featured in tourist magazine cover shots or past eight years. 5 Thriving detailed in scientific articles, is at the head of the class of The year also brought a big increase in EPA funding Habitats estuaries aspiring to return to health and vitality. for Long Island Sound. After averaging around $4.5 and Abundant But Long Island Sound is right behind its estuarine million annually the prior five years, Long Island Sound Wildlife cousin in accomplishment and discipline. After monitoring funding jumped up in the federal fiscal year 2017 to in the late 1980s revealed suffocatingly low levels of $8.6 million. This enabled a doubling of the number of dissolved oxygen in the bottom waters of the Sound, restoration projects initiated through the Long Island 6 Sustainable federal and state efforts through the Long Island Sound Sound Futures Fund. In total, the Futures Fund awarded and Resilient Study got Long Island Sound on a pollution diet—a $2.04 million to local government and community groups Communities calorie count for nitrogen. In 2000, Connecticut and New for 30 projects that will improve the water and habitat York set aggressive targets to reduce nitrogen pollution. quality of Long Island Sound. It also resulted in increased 7 Sound Science Now, after more than a billion dollars in investments in monitoring and assessment of water quality that will pave wastewater treatment upgrades, there are 45 million fewer the way for future action. Many of these projects will be and Inclusive pounds of nitrogen discharged annually to the Sound undertaken in 2018. And more initiatives and expanded Management from human sewage, a 59 percent reduction. In 2017, partnerships are coming to a bay or harbor near you— progress continued, with 3,600 fewer pounds of nitrogen Congress just approved another increase in EPA’s Long 8 What You Can discharged every day compared to just 2016! Island Sound funding to $12.6 million for 2018. Do to Help the Sound THE LONG ISLAND SOUND STUDY Comprehen- —Mark Tedesco, Director, sive Conservation and Management Plan is orga- Environmental Protection Agency, nized around four themes. Long Island Sound Office Sound Update provides Clean Waters and Thriving Habitats and Sustainable Sound Science and readers with news Healthy Watersheds Abundant Wildlife and Resilient Inclusive Management about the Sound Improve water Restore and protect Communities Manage Long and the Long quality by reducing the Sound’s ecological Support vibrant, Island Sound using Island Sound contaminant and balance in a healthy, informed, and sound science and Study. nutrient loads from productive, and engaged communities cross jurisdictional the land and the resilient state to that use, appreciate, governance that is waters impacting benefit both people and help protect Long inclusive, adaptive, Find the Long Island Sound. and the natural Island Sound. innovative, and Long Island environment. accountable. Sound Study on Facebook 1 SPRING 2018 | WWW.LONGISLANDSOUNDSTUDY.NET Long Island Sound Futures Fund 3 Grant Program: 2017 In 2017, the Long Island Sound Futures Fund awarded $2.04 million in grants to groups that matched these funds with an additional $3.3 million to conduct 30 stewardship, restoration, watershed management, and education projects. 2 During this period, EPA and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation 1 (NFWF) provided funds to support the program. Since 2005, the Futures Fund has invested $17 million in 379 projects. With recipient match of $33 million, the program has generated $50 million for locally based conservation. The projects have opened up 157 river miles for fish passage, restored 1,090 MAMASSSASSACHUSETTC E TTSS acres of critical fish and wildlife habitat and open space, treated 202 million gallons of pollution from ground and surface sources, and educated and engaged three million people from communities surrounding the Sound. See www.longislandsoundstudy.net/grants for descriptions of all projects. Clean Water + Healthy Watersheds Educating + Engaging Sustainable INSET for? 4 1. Rain Gardens and Rain Barrels and Resilient Communities Using Flow Meters to Remove Nitrogen at the for Eastern Connecticut (CT) 1. Sound Spirit Week (CT) 2. Using Flow Meters to Remove Nitrogen Amherst Wastewater Treatment Plant (MA) 2. Connections to Long Island Sound (CT) at the Amherst Wastewater Treatment Plant (MA) 3. From the Schoolyard to the Sound: A Watershed Monitoring Strategy to Support the Engaging Communities through 8 RHODE|DE|E 3. A Watershed Monitoring Strategy to Support Long Island Sound Nitrogen Strategy (MA, NH,VT) Schoolyard Habitats (CT) the Long Island Sound Nitrogen Strategy ISLANDLAND (MA, NH, VT) 4. Long Island Sound Summit Be a Good Egg- II (NY) 4. Promoting Green Infrastructure through and Video Project (CT) NEW CONNECECTICUTECCTIC U Monitoring & Evaluation of Bioswales (CT) 5. Audubon WildLife Guards: A Coastal YORK 5. Rapid Action Plans to Deliver Green Youth Conservation Program (CT) 8 3 Infrastructure in Coastal Connecticut 6. Stormwater Management 1 10 Communities (CT) Education for Residents (CT) 2 6. The Unified Water Study Equipment Loan 7. Identifying Ecologically Significant Areas Program: Collaboration in Embayment for the Blue Plan (CT, NY) Monitoring (NY, CT) 8. Healthy Connecticut Towns 7. Partnering for Pollution Prevention: for a Healthy Long Island Sound (CT) Water quality monitoring of Impaired 2 5 Waterways (CT) 9. SOUNDoff Event! Creating Long 1 1 8. Collaborative Watershed Planning Island Sound Stewards–III (NY) 4 6 4 for the Ten Mile River (CT, NY) 10. Be a Good Egg- II (NY) 9. Project WASTE (Waterway and Street 7 5 11. Septic Change-Out Education Program (NY) Trash Elimination) (NY) 12. Sound Gardening: 10. Unified Water Study: Long Island Sound Why Your Grass Choice Matters (NY) 10 Embayment Monitoring (CT, NY) 6 11. Hempstead Harbor 2018 Water Quality 3 Monitoring Program (NY) Thriving Habitats + Abundant Wildlife 7 12. Planting for Clean Water Communities (NY) 1. Resilience Management Planning and Restoration 13. Building Clean Water: Demonstrating at Dodge Paddock/Beal Preserve (CT) Sewage Treatment & Water Conservation Strategies (NY) 2. Planning for Fish Passage at the Starr Mill Pond Dam (CT) 12 10 3. H. Smith Richardson Wildlife 12 CREDITS: 13 Preserve Restoration Project (CT) 11 1. Boy Scouts: iStock 9 5 11 4. Bioswale garden: New Haven Urban Resources Institute 4. Coastal Wetland and Forest Restoration 10. Plover: iStock 9 10. Monitoring: CT Fund for the Environment Planning Project (NY) 4 5 5. Phillips Mill Dam: Vicky O’Neill/NYSDEC Map by Lucy Reading-Ikkanda; National Fish and Wildlife Foundation 5. Phillips Mill Fish Passage Project (NY) 10 3 2 MAMASSSASSACHUSETTC E TTSS INSET for? Using Flow Meters to Remove Nitrogen at the Amherst Wastewater Treatment Plant (MA) A Watershed Monitoring Strategy to Support the 8 RHODE|DE|E Long Island Sound Nitrogen Strategy (MA, NH,VT) ISLANDLAND Be a Good Egg- II (NY) NEW CONNECECTICUTECCTIC U YORK 8 3 2 1 2 5 1 1 4 6 4 7 5 6 3 7 12 10 12 13 11 9 5 11 9 4 10 3 SPRING 2018 | WWW.LONGISLANDSOUNDSTUDY.NET Clean Waters and Healthy Watersheds THE GOAL OF THIS THEME is to improve water quality by reducing contaminant and nutrient loads from the land and waters impacting the Long Island Sound. Urban Resources Initiative Urban Resources BY THE NUMBERS Spotlight on Total annual nitrogen discharges to Long Rain Gardens/Bioswales Island Sound from wastewater treatment plants have been reduced by more than Green Infratructure Bioswales Urban Resources Initiative (URI) is helping 45 million pounds since the early 1990s. Nitrogen is a plant nutrient that, in to bring green infrastructure to New Haven, excess, can lead to poor water quality. and make Long Island Sound cleaner, with the support of Long Island Sound Futures Fund In 2016 and 2017, the states of New York grants. Last year, the New Haven group received and Connecticut met and exceeded a a $43,000 grant to monitor bioswales that the 2017 goal to reduce nitrogen discharges city of New Haven will install in downtown BIOSWALE in New Haven uses native plants by 58.5% from the early 1990s. locations with the help of a GIS-siting tool to capture and filter rain water. developed by URI with a prior Futures Fund New York City’s upgrades of four grant.