Cleaning Water All Around CT...

The Clean Water Fund helps towns improve their sewer and stormwater systems to protect public health and keep Long Island Sound's water clean. Yesterday, DEEP met to discuss priority projects for the next two years. There's a lot on the agenda!

Highlights include funding for:

• Major projects to stop raw sewage overflows in Hartford, Bridgeport, Middletown, and New Haven
• Projects to remove excess nitrogen (which causes the Sound's dead zone) in Farmington, Killingly, Norwich, Rocky Hill, and Sprague
• Phosphorus removal projects (phosphorus causes algae growth that can smother lakes) in Beacon Falls, Bristol, Thomaston, Thompson, and Waterbury
• Plus additional projects in Middletown, Old Saybrook, and Old Lyme

There are two new funding areas we think are especially critical:

• Green infrastructure like rain gardens, which keep water out of the stormwater system, beautify our cities, and are often cheaper than pipes and wastewater plants
• Climate change resiliency projects that can help our communities prepare for stronger storms and higher sea levels

Together, these projects will keep cleaning our water and creating thousands of jobs for engineers and construction workers-a great investment for Connecticut! You can read more in our testimony for the Clean Water Investment Coalition.

...and Across the Sound.

Earlier this week, we released a report card and interactive map tracking the progress that sewage treatments plants around are making in reducing nitrogen. The plants are required to cut their nitrogen output because nitrogen acts as a fertilizer-it fuels algae growth that uses up oxygen. That turns parts of the western Sound into low-oxygen dead zone every summer, forcing fish and other marine life to flee or suffocate.

The report card focuses on New York, but has good news for Connecticut: the Nutmeg State earned an A for meeting its targets on time! A lot of that success is due to help from the Clean Water Fund.

New York has more work to do-while Long Island's counties got As, New York City and Westchester County both got Bs, with a note that they're "at risk" until they finish their work. Westchester and New York's plants dump a lot of nitrogen into the western end of the Sound, where the dead zone is worst, so we'll be keeping a close eye to make sure their upgrades get done by the 2017 deadline.

You can learn more here.

These upgrades are critical first steps in the effort to help the Sound heal. We look forward to a Long Island Sound where wildlife can flourish all year!