New York
Recipient: Cornell Cooperative Extension Association of Suffolk County Grant Amount (EPA): $100,000 Recipient Match: $100,000 Total Project Funding: $200,000 Project Area: Riverhead and Southold
Cornell Cooperative Extension Association of Suffolk County will work with sweet corn and potato farmers to increase application of controlled release nitrogen fertilizer (CRNF) to reduce the amount of nitrogen pollution into the ground and surface waters of Long Island Sound. The project aims to:1) reduce the annual application of nitrogen fertilizer by an average of 2,496 pounds without adversely affecting crop yield and/or quality; 2) conduct the sweet corn and potato Best Management Practice (economic risk reduction) Challenge; 3) add six new farmers, increasing the number of participating farmers to 22 out of 35 growers and reduce their annual nitrogen application to sweet corn by an average of 31 pounds/acre; 4) engage up to 20 potato farmers in side-by-side demonstration projects to improve their nitrogen use efficiency and reduce annual application of nitrogen application by 33-lbs/acre; 5) observe a 50 percent increase in sweet corn farmers (17 of 35 farmers) independently purchasing CRNF for use on their entire/or major portion of crop; and 6) observe a 12 percent increase in number of potato farmers (3 of 25 farmers) that independently purchase CRNF for use on their entire/or major portion of crop.
Recipient: Town of Oyster Bay Grant Amount (EPA): $20,247.91 Recipient Match: $28,776.25 Total Project Funding: $49,024.16 Project Area: Waterfront Center Parking Lot, Oyster Bay
Town of Oyster Bay will build a 500-square foot rain garden, and install 60 square feet of permeable pavement and two 50 gallon rain barrels to treat 1,255 gallons of stormwater runoff from a 7,000 square foot parking lot discharging into Long Island Sound. The rain garden will capture and treat storm water runoff from a heavily used parking lot currently discharging pollutants into the Long Island Sound. The rain garden would be complemented by a permeable pathway and two rain barrels to be placed at nearby structures to collect stormwater runoff from the roofs of buildings roofs prior to entering the Sound. Construction of this rain garden occurs in two phases: phase 1 will consist of a classroom training and then hands on participation in construction of the rain garden by approximately 40 municipal officials/ public employees; and phase 2 will consist of a classroom training and hands on participation in the construction of the rain garden by approximately 40 volunteers from the surrounding communities. The goal is to train different groups in the creation and maintenance of green infrastructure practices to encourage adoption a public and private sites.
Recipient: New York Botanical Garden Grant Amount: $100,000 Recipient Match: $200,000 Total Project Funding: $300,000 Project Area: Bronx River, Bronx
The Botanical Garden will convert one acre of asphalt parking lot into 2,700 square feet of permeable paver detention basins that will capture and infiltrate 596,197 gallons of stormwater runoff annually. Once complete, signs will be installed to highlight the ecological and green infrastructure improvements that have been made throughout the garden to be viewed by some of the 820,000 visitors to the garden each year. The project will also use a website (http://www.nybg.org/) to disseminate materials related to this project. As a result of the Garden’s focus on horticulture and planting activities, a significant quantity of organic fertilizer and compost is used to maintain plantings, and during precipitation events, runoff from the Garden enters into the combined storm and sanitary system (CSS). Additionally, a high volume of traffic occurs within the Garden’s ring road, especially near the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. Due to this traffic, hydrocarbons and heavy metals are deposited onto the roadway and subsequently washed into the storm water system and distributed into the CSS. The NYBG seeks to reduce the harmful effects of CSOs by reducing demand on the overburdened storm water system through the use of green infrastructure to detain and infiltrate stormwater within the campus. By detaining stormwater in key areas, the NYBG anticipates that it will reduce the amount of stormwater contaminated by hydrocarbons and heavy metals, high nitrogen and phosphorus levels, and sedimentary deposits entering the Bronx River and Long Island Sound.
Recipient: Rocking the Boat Grant Amount: $35,000 Recipient Match: $10,718 Total Project Funding: $45,718 Project Area: Hunts Point Riverside Park; near ABC Carpet & Home, at the 182nd Street and Twin Dams; near Soundview Park; at the mouth and near Baretto Point Park, and outside the mouth of the Bronx River, Bronx
Rocking the Boat will engage 125 high school-age participants in after-school and summer Youth Development and Job Skills Programs to collect baseline data using a variety of fish sampling techniques, including eel monitoring with eel mops and fyke nets, beach seine collections, otter trawl sampling, and acoustic monitoring for tagged species. All of this data will be shared with Bronx Zoo/Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which will maintain a shared database accessible to Bronx River partners and other interested parties. WCS and partners will use this data to help craft restoration goals and a diadromous fish management plan, including the development of best monitoring practices to assess long-term restoration success. Students are all drawn from the surrounding community of Hunts Point and adjacent South Bronx neighborhoods. Through their work on the project, participants will learn about and develop greater appreciation for the Bronx River and Long Island Sound, while building their ecological monitoring skills.
Recipient: National Wildlife Federation Grant Amount (EPA): $59,494 Recipient Match: $30,640 Total Project Funding: $90,134 Project Area: Huntington/Northport Harbor Complex (Villages of Northport, Asharoken, and Huntington Bay, Long Island
The National Wildlife Federation and Citizens Campaign for the Environment will use a collaborative planning process including two workshops and one public meeting, a survey and development of a strategy by 50 participants focused on identifying and overcoming barriers to the adoption of green infrastructure to reduce stormwater pollution in the Northport/Huntington Harbor Complex (Town of Huntington, Villages of Asharoken, Huntington Bay and Northport and the Suffolk County Planning Department). The project will: 1) identify barriers to adoption of green infrastructure, 2) explore whether a collaborative planning process can help communities collectively overcome barriers and develop strategies for broader green infrastructure adoption, 3) create a collective Green Infrastructure Action Agenda, 4) Consider modifications to codes, ordinances, and land use policies to encourage green infrastructure techniques; and 5) seek commitments from public agencies to install 1-2 demonstration projects. Project results will be disseminated to 40,000 people through websites and newsletters.
Recipient: Incorporated Village of Sea Cliff Grant Amount (EPA): $55,000 Recipient Match: $72,113 Total Project Funding: $127,113 Project Area: Hempstead Harbor, Long Island
The Village of Sea Cliff, New York will collect water quality data to help monitor 13 different sources of pollution at 18 locations to track improving and declining water quality in inner and outer Hempstead Harbor. Data will be collected about bacteria, dissolved oxygen, salinity, water temperature, pH, nitrite, nitrate, ammonia, clarity, turbidity, physical observations, and precipitation. The project will publish an annual report, posting results on a website for use by communities and public agencies. Water quality monitoring will occur over 25 weeks and add a new component sampling which is outfall locations from Scudders Pond weekly for an additional 21 weeks plus up to 8 additional sampling during significant rainfalls. Data will be used to assist local governments in detecting illicit discharges, identifying water-quality trends, and in the development and implementation of pathogen Total Maximum Daily Load retrofit plans.
Connecticut
Recipient: Central Connecticut Regional Planning Agency Grant Amount (EPA, FWS): $100,000 Recipient Match: $116,723 Total Project Funding: $216,723 Project Area: Pequabuck River, Bristol The Central Connecticut Regional Planning Agency will remove 3,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment and remove an impoundment to fish passage restoring 8.5 stream miles for fish passage by alewife, blueback herring, American shad, American eel, Atlantic salmon, sea lamprey and other native fish. All sediment will be removed and transferred to an off-site remediation facility for disposal. Partners include: Pequabuck River Watershed Association, Farmington River Watershed Association, Trout Unlimited, CT DEEP, and the City of Bristol.
Recipient: Groton Open Space Assocaition Grant Amount (FWS): $100,000 Recipient Match: $90,675 Total Project Funding: $190,675 Project Area: Groton
Groton Open Space Association will restore 31 acres of coastal forest and 15 acres of coastal grassland and shrub/scrub habitat and create dispersal corridors to surrounding open space for New England Cottontail. The New England cottontail is the only rabbit native to Connecticut. In the mid-1930s, the rabbits were still considered abundant. However, as agricultural areas reverted to forest and these forests matured, the number of rabbits declined. The site is within the Ledyard Coastal focus area, a priority area for conservation actions in the ‘New England Cottontail Conservation Strategy making it an ideal location for habitat restoration. Groton Open Space is working with CT DEEP, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and US Fish and Wildlife Service to identify best practices for management of the site to achieve high quality habitat. A licensed professional forester will develop a forest management plan and contractors will manage and implement the plan. Up to 100 volunteers will remove invasive species and plant native plants.
Recipient: University of Connecticut Grant Amount (EPA): $88,340 Recipient Match: $51,280 Total Project Funding: $139,620 Project Area: Thimble Islands, Branford
The project will determine pollutant the removal capacity of seaweed (kelp) using an expandable anchoring, off-shore grid installation, and provide formation for potential kelp farmers and coastal managers about water quality improvement from bioextraction technology.
University of Connecticut will grow Saccahrina latissima (sugar kelp) on one farm system grid using 6 by 50m long lines to determine the capacity of seaweed to extract nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon per hectare as well as to compare these numbers with those from a single line cultivation system. The estimated nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon removal of the kelp will be 24 lb (or 11 kg), 6 lb (3 kg) and 400 lb (180 kg). Additionally, the project will evaluate heavy metal remediation by kelp measuring total arsenic, copper, zinc, nickel, lead, mercury, chromium and cadmium. Project results will be presented at three scientific and non-scientific meetings and via regional and national TV media. The project ultimately hopes to develop robust information to increase the use of “green infrastructure,” that is using natural biological communities like seaweed that already are found in our waterways to reduce water pollution from wastewater treatment plants and from homes, businesses and communities surrounding Long Island Sound.
Recipient: Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk Grant Amount (EPA): $34,929 Recipient Match: $35,268 Total Project Funding:$70,197 Project Area: Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk
The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk will use two manned interactive exhibits on the floor of the aquarium floor titled: Water Quality Station and Flotable Debris Station to present information and provide educational experiences to 125,000 visitors. This project, “Keeping the Sound Healthy,” uses a community-based social marketing campaign to encourage adoption of activities that protect water quality. The focus of the exhibits will be on different activities which may be changed or adopted by individuals including: reuse and recycling; car washing and lawn care. Each exhibit will provide an activity that a visitor can engage in while at the station. Throughout the day at both exhibits, visitors will be asked to pledge to adopt a new behavior. Using an IPad, a picture will be taken of families who have written their pledge on a portable chalk board. With family’s permission, images will then be loaded into a slide show that will show on a monitor as a permanent part of the exhibit. Staff also will also conduct follow-up surveys with visitors to evaluate the impact of the project and commitment to the pledge. Each station will be manned by two educators who will interact with the public on key messages, organize the activities at each station, obtain pledges, take photos, and obtain information for evaluation purposes. Twenty volunteers and interns will prepare materials for the floatables debris station. The project aims to encourage activity changes in 75,000 citizens.
Recipient: Northeast Organic Farming Association of Connecticut Grant Amount (EPA): $25,724.46 Recipient Match: $26,413 Total Project Funding: $52,137.46 Project Area: Waterbury and a second location in CT
Northeast Organic Farming Association of Connecticut will provide two certificate courses about alternative, non-chemical lawn care aimed at reducing fertilizer pollutants into Long Island Sound to 59 lawn care providers offering each student technical support for six months. The course is designed for small lawn care technicians, small business owners, sole proprietors and municipal workers who maintain lawns and landscapes. The project has two goals: 1) provide an affordable, accessible, short course which offers a marketable credential — the NOFA Organic Lawn Care Certificate — upon course completion; 2) conduct a survey of participants to identify both the barriers and catalysts to adoption of alternative, non-chemical lawn care practices; 3) use survey results to improve the future effectiveness of the course and guide course; and 4) engage in community marketing strategies with a website, twitter, a blog, Facebook page and Linked-In group, as well as dissemination via signs/door hangers with the “Organic Lawns and Gardens Keep our Water Clean” brand to clients.
Recipient: National Audubon Society Grant Amount (EPA, FWS): $34,999 Recipient Match: $61,845 Total Project Funding: $96,844 Project Area: New Haven
The National Audubon Society will create five wildlife habitat demonstration sites covering .81 acres at two urban parks (Beaver Pond and West River Parks), a Long Island Sound Study Stewardship site (Common Ground), and two elementary schools (Hooker and Barnard). The project will employ an innovative model of community-based conservation that engages and trains multiple stakeholders (teachers, students, community members) in habitat enhancement, citizen science, and education and outreach in two economically distressed neighborhoods, each centered on a municipal park located in close proximity to K-8 schools and active neighborhood groups. These partnerships will ultimately result in the establishment of a network of “urban oases” that will benefit migratory songbirds and improve watershed health through removal of invasive plants and replanting with native vegetation. The demonstration sites and associated outreach initiatives will educate 4,000 schoolchildren and 3,000 adults, enlist 81 volunteers and provide habitat for native birds and emphasize connections to Long Island Sound. The project will install interpretive signs at school and park demonstration sites related to wildlife and habitat and present information at the annual migratory bird festival. Partners include Common Ground High School, the Yale School of Forestry, Friends of West River Park, Friends of Beaver Pond Park, and the Carolyn Foundation.
Recipient: Sacred Heart University Grant Amount: $59,056 Recipient Match: $88,470 Total Project Funding: $147,526 Project Area: Stratford Point, Lordship Peninsula, Town of Stratford
Sacred Heart University will construct a 3.5 acre intertidal salt marsh pilot living shoreline. The project will collect and analyze abiotic and biotic data to assess the success of this type of living shoreline which is proposed to protect the coast from storm generated erosion and to enhance re-establishment of Spartina fringe tidal marsh. It will also produce a long term management plan to address coastal erosion at Stratford Point that can be also be utilized by other municipalities in their coastal resiliency planning. Data will be presented to the CT DEEP, CT Department of Agriculture, and the Long Island Sound Study to inform restoration and management of Stratford Point andt also provide valuable data about living shorelines as a viable alternative to hardened shoreline structures for preventing coastal erosion. Data will also be: 1) input into a database about work at Stratford Point, 2) made available on the web-based environmental indicator database operated by Connecticut Audubon Society, 3) provided to the Long Island Sound Stewardship Work Group for inclusion in the GIS Stewardship Initiative Site Selection tool, and 4) utilized as an interactive teaching tool in Sacred Heart University’s Environmental Systems Analysis and Management program.
Recipient: Connecticut River Coastal Conservation District Grant Amount (EPA, FWS): $36,000 Recipient Match: $15,879 Total Project Funding: $51,879 Project Area: Menunketesuck River, Clinton/Westbrook
Connecticut River Coastal Conservation District will coordinate design and permitting of a fishway for the Chapman Mill Pond Dam to ultimately open up over 2.9 miles of river and 40 acres of pond habitat for spawning and nursery habitat of migratory fish including river herring and sea-run brown trout. The dam, located at the head-of-the-tide on the Menunketesuck River, currently blocks migratory fish access to the watershed above the dam. The existing dam is approximately 10-12 feet above the downstream river bed. The area around the north end of the dam will allow for installation of a steep-pass fishway. Less than 15 percent of the 17.6 square miles of the Menunketesuck watershed is developed and most of the area is covered in forest (72 percent as of a 2006 survey) ensuring good upstream habitat. Project partners include the Town of Westbrook, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Recipient: Hammonasset Chapter #446, Trout Unlimited Grant Amount (EPA, FWS): $21,375 Recipient Match: $15,879 Total Project Funding: $37,254 Project Area: Millpond Dam, North Branford and East Haven Dam, Farm River, East Haven The Hammonasset Chapter #446, Trout Unlimited, Inc. will finalize a plan, including permitting, to construct two fishways that will ultimately provide access to 5.35 river miles and to a 4.25 acre headpond behind the Pages Millpond Dam for alewife, blueback herring, American eel, and sea- run brown trout. Ultimately, after installation of the fish passage, the existing riverine and spawning habitats in the Farm River will be doubled. The Farm River drains a 26.6 square mile watershed on the central coast of Connecticut, entering Long Island Sound in East Haven. Native brook trout and a special sub-strain of wild brown trout are found in the upper reaches. The Farm River also has one of the densest populations of wild trout for a Connecticut coastal river.
Recipient: Connecticut Fund for the Environment Grant Amount: $60,000 Recipient Match: $63,486 Total Project Funding: $123,486 Project Area: Housatonic Community College, Bridgeport
Connecticut Fund for the Environment will work collaboratively to develop an engineered design to be used for permitting and construction of a suite of green infrastructure practices to increase the capture, retention, and infiltration of stormwater runoff from two of the four acres of impervious surface at the Housatonic Community Colleage (HCC) Campus. Project partners include: City of Bridgeport, the Bridgeport Water Pollution Control Agency and HCC. Because HCC is located within a combined sewer flow area, runoff from walkways, plazas and roofs contributes stormwater and sometimes leads to combined sewer overflows that reduce water quality in the Pequennock River and Long Island Sound. This project is the first major portion of a substantially larger project (not funded through the LISFF) that promises to leverage $4.5 million from the state Clean Water Fund for Bridgeport, and serve as a model for other Connecticut municipalities with combined sewer overflow water quality problems.
Recipient: Housatonic Valley Association Grant Amount (EPA): $24,215 Recipient Match: $9,855 Total Project Funding: $34,070 Project Area: Towns of Seymour and Oxford
The Housatonic Valley Association will work with the Seymour and Oxford town engineers and town planners to explore local concerns and barriers to adopting and implementing green infrastructure to address stormwater pollution. The project will involve: 1) review of land use regulations to identify specific areas within the regulations where green infrastructure may be incorporated; 2) review zoning and wetlands regulations to identify specific provisions which may be amended to improve stormwater management; 3) explore a process for the towns to create an intermunicipal agreement to cooperatively manage stormwater runoff in the Four Mile Brook, the Squantuck Brook watershed and Great Hollow reservoir; 4) engage legal review of draft green infrastructure regulations to ensure that the proposed changes are consistent with state and local statutes and ordinances; 5) work with land-use decision-makers in the Valley Council of Governments, CT DEEP, and Southwest Conservation District to explore efforts to implement green infrastructure in regional initiatives; and 6) document and disseminate outcomes to all participants in the process.
Recipient: Earthplace – The Nature Discovery Center Grant Amount (EPA): $31,343 Recipient Match: $10,474 Total Project Funding: $41,817 Project Area Sasco Brook Estuary, Towns of Westport and Fairfield
Earthplace – The Nature Discovery Center, Inc. will conduct “track down” water quality monitoring to determine the sources of pollution to the Sasco Brook Estuary. Dissolved oxygen, conductivity, and temperature will be taken in situ with a water sample for bacteria analysis. Monitoring will first involve testing the main branch of the estuary and then other sites will be added in other small drainage tributaries, storm drain networks, commercial areas and associated with parking lots, and garbage compactors to allow for identification of bacteria hot spots. Once pollution sources are identified, town agencies will be notified of problems to foster remediation of pollution.
BOTH STATES
Recipient: University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Grant Amount (EPA, USFWS & LIS Funders Collaborative): $135,568 Recipient Matching Funds; $50,702 Total Project Funds: $186,270 Project Area: Long Island Sound and 2 local embayments, Norwalk River, CT and Hempstead Harbor, NY.
The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science will develop a sustainable system for production of Long Island Sound and embayment ecosystem health report cards. The project will initially engage two embayment partners—Coalition to Save Hempstead Harbor/Hempstead Harbor in New York and Harbor Watch in Connecticut. University of Connecticut researchers will assist in all phases of report card development. Key project activities will be to: 1) develop the structure and protocols for broader and local development of report cards staring with a suite of water quality data collected Soundwide and in two embayments; 2) provide a proven, user-friendly tool to build on that allows the public, resource managers, industry, and NGOs to better understand, track and respond to gains and losses in water quality and ecosystem condition in the Sound; 3) use a participatory approach to establish a sustainable culture of environmental report cards by engaging with key local NGOs, educational institutions, and public agencies in the development of the report card protocols and structure; and 4) produce and disseminate the first set of report cards as well as protocols to aid other organizations in developing new report card projects.
Recipient: National Audubon Society Grant Amount (EPA, FWS): $69,744.01 Recipient Match:$62,286.32 Total Project Funding: $132,030.33 Project Area: Centre Island Town Beach, Bayville, Stehli Beach, Lattingtown, Oyster Bay, & Pelham Bay, NY; Barn Island, Sandy Point, Bluff Point, Sandy/Morse Point, West Haven, Silver Sands/Charles Island, Milford Point, Long and Pleasure Beaches, CT
National Audubon Society education and science staff will train 135 people to steward beach nesting bird sites, monitor fenced areas and serve as beach docents during busy beach-use days. Trained stewards will lead bird walks to allow people to experience the beauty of the birds first- hand. The project will also provide a multi-session Audubon education program that teaches students in 30 classrooms about priority birds and habitats in Bridgeport and Greenwich, CT and Westbury, Hempstead, and Roosevelt, NY schools. The lessons culminate with students designing signs for bird nesting areas some of which will be installed to alert beach-goers of nesting areas and to reduce disturbance to birds. Signs will provide a Quick Response Code that can be scanned on a cell phone, allows visitors to access the “Be a Good Egg” website and then requests that they take a pledge to reduce threats to these birds and sign electronically. Two-hundred beachgoers will be asked to take the “Be a Good Egg” pledge. Ultimately, the project will protect 130 acres of beach-nesting bird habitat at 9 sites supporting 55 breeding pairs of piping plovers and about 425 pairs of least terns. It aims to improve 11 beach-nesting bird sites through education and outreach by decreasing human disturbance; and to educate 10,000 people about sharing the shore with coastal waterbirds. Piping plover nesting and hatching success is projected to increase from 1.21 to 1.5; and least t ern from 0.23 to 0.5. These birds are threatened native species facing loss or degradation of their nesting areas because of human disturbance due to conflicts with recreational uses and predators, and sea level rise among other factors. The project will post monthly blogs and prepare Facebook posts three times a month. The blogs and posts will be linked with “Be a Good Egg” outreach.
Recipient: The Nature Conservancy Grant Amount (EPA): $72,435.83 Recipient Match: $59,797 Total Project Funding: $132,232.83 Project Area: Falls River, Essex, CT, Aspetuck River, Westport, CT and Beaver Brook, Oyster Bay, NY
The Nature Conservancy will modify three low-head dams to restore fish passage for for alewife, blueback herring, American eel, sea-run trout, and other native fish.: 1) At the Tilley-Pratt Dam a stone-wall lined channel will be modified with a rocky ramp and four stone weirs to develop a passable channel allowing fish to move upstream beyond the dam and opening up 2.5 miles of stream corridor and the half acre impoundment above the dam on Falls River, Essex, CT; 2) At the Newman dam footings will be constructed for the entrance and exit of a pool and a weir allowing fish to bypass the dam. This fishway will also be designed with field stone and wooden weirs opening up 1.2 miles of stream channel and associated wetlands on the Aspetuck River in Westport, CT; and 3) At the Beaver Brook Dam a feasibility analysis and design will be prepared that will one day open up 1.5 miles of stream corridor and over 110 acres of associated wetlands upstream of the dam in Mill Neck, NY. Two educational signs will be installed at the sites.