Want to know more about efforts to restore and protect Long Island Sound? The 2011-2012 Long Island Sound Study Biennial Report is a good place to start. The 24-page report highlights the programs and projects undertaken in 2011 and 2012 to improve water quality, restore and protect natural areas, better understand the Sound’s environmental issues through scientific research, and increase the public’s awareness of the Sound. It also highlights the Long Island Sound Futures Fund, which distributed more than $3.2 million in grants in 2011 and 2012 to groups involved in the Long Island Sound cleanup.
The projects involve the cooperation of a wide range of government agencies, universities, businesses, and community groups. These groups are dedicated to improving the 110-mile long waterway through the Long Island Sound Study, a cooperative effort sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency and the states of Connecticut and New York.
Long Island Sound, one of the largest urban estuaries in the United States, provides economic and recreational benefits to millions of people in Connecticut and New York, while also providing natural habitats to more than 1,200 species of invertebrates, 170 species of fish, and dozens of species of migratory birds. An estuary is where salt water from the ocean mixes with fresh water from rivers.
The New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission produced the report, the fifth of its kind for the Study, as part of a cooperative agreement with the EPA.
View/download the report on-line.
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