Eastern Long Island Sound gets an A- for water quality
Eastern Long Island Sound has the best water quality in the estuary, receiving an A- grade in the Long Island Sound Report Card 2016 released Thursday by the Connecticut Fund for the Environment/Save the Sound.
The Sound was divided into five regions. The eastern Sound, from Westbrook and Clinton to the Rhode Island border, met all five water quality indicators set by the report card, gauged by water clarity and levels of dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll a as measured by the amount of microalgae, as well as nitrogen and phosphorous.
The easternmost portion of the Sound received an overall score of 92 percent, meaning it provides good habitat for aquatic plants and animals, the report said. With fewer people and less development than the rest of the Connecticut shoreline, the eastern Sound also benefits from more daily exchange of waters with the Atlantic Ocean than other areas.
Overall, the report found that water quality improves from west to east, with the area closest to New York City, called the western narrows, receiving an F.
The report card is based on 2015 data provided by environmental agencies in Connecticut and New York, as well as from individual scientists, according to Laura McMillan, spokeswoman for the Connecticut Fund for the Environment/Save the Sound, a nonprofit environmental advocacy organization.
This is the first year the report card was created by Save the Sound, she said, and will be repeated every two years to track changes.
The data show areas of the western Sound, from Bridgeport to the New York border, are highly stressed by high levels of nitrogen, which fuels excessive growth of phytoplankton and seaweed, leading to algae blooms and depleted oxygen levels. While there have been several initiatives to reduce nitrogen levels in the Sound, more needs to be done, McMillan said.
“There is great momentum around nitrogen reduction in the Sound, and we’re going to try to keep it on that trajectory,” she said.
The report card was prepared by Save the Sound, which worked with Jamie Vaudrey, assistant research professor in the Marine Sciences Department at the University of Connecticut’s Avery Point campus in Groton, and Jason Krumholz of McLaughlin Research Corp. The University of Maryland's Center for Environmental Science also worked on the report, which was funded by the Long Island Sound Funders Collaborative.
The purpose of the report card is to provide an assessment of the health of the Sound to help direct resources to improve and sustain healthy environmental conditions. Fed by a watershed of 1,300 square miles with about one million acres of open and coastal waters, the Sound is located within a highly populous area, with 23 million people living within 50 miles of the waterway.
The results “point to the need to reduce pollution by engaging communities and people surrounding the Sound in actions to improve it,” Connecticut Fund for the Environment said in a news release. “Water quality is an indispensable component of a stable and healthy environment for humans, fish and wildlife.”
Curt Johnson, executive director of the Save the Sound program, said the report card supports the efforts of state agencies in New York and Connecticut to reduce nutrient pollution of excessive nitrogen and phosphorous.
“But it’s also up to our citizens to take action in their communities and at home,” he said. “Modernizing septic, reducing fertilizer use and planting native plants and shrub buffers along the edge of our streams and wetlands all help reduce the pollution entering the streams that feed the Sound. These are all critical investments in our children’s futures.”
The report urged people to take six actions to help improve water quality in the Sound:
• Reduce water use, which results in improved quality of treated water discharged into the estuary.
• Eliminate or reduce fertilizer use, which sends nutrients into the waterway.
• Keep litter out of waterways.
• Plant native trees and plants along streams and waterfronts to filter out pollutants.
• Pump out septic systems every three to five years.
• Do not dispose of harmful chemicals, household grease and used cooking oil in your household pipes.
To read the Long Island Sound Report Card 2016, visit
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