www.longislandsoundstudy.net December/January 2008 e-newsletter of the Long Island Sound Study (LISS)CT DEP Commissioner McCarthy to Speak
at CAC meeting
Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (CT DEP) Commissioner Gina McCarthy will be speaking about Long Island Sound issues, and the impact of climate change on the Long Island Sound watershed, at the next LISS Citizens Advisory Committee meeting on Thursday, Dec. 13 at the University of Connecticut Stamford campus. Also on the agenda is Hal Alvord, director of public works for the city of Norwalk, who will discuss Norwalk’s innovative storm drain filter program. The CAC meets from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. If you are interested in attending, please call the LISS office at 203-977-1541. | | 
Commissioner Gina McCarthy |
| Sea Floor Mapping Workshop Held in Fort Trumbull
CT DEP sponsored, with the support from the University of Connecticut and LISS, a Seafloor Mapping Workshop attended by more than 60 scientists and resource managers on Nov. 28 at Fort Trumbull, CT. The purpose of the workshop was to develop clear management needs to help guide development of a seafloor mapping strategy for Long Island Sound. The strategy, which will be developed by CT DEP, will establish priorities and approaches in mapping the sea floor. Example applications include improved assessment of infrastructure projects. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) is considering endorsing the strategy as well. |
| CT Wins Blue Ribbon Award
An innovative program to reduce nitrogen discharges into the Long Island Sound has resulted in the State of Connecticut winning EPA’s first Blue Ribbon Water Quality Trading Award. The CT Water Quality Trading program was selected over other finalists from across the country. The EPA award highlights programs which have achieved environmental and economic benefits as well as to showcase programs that align well with EPA’s Water Quality Trading Policy.
One of Connecticut’s management strategies to reduce nitrogen loading was to develop an innovative nitrogen-trading program among the 79 sewage treatment plants located throughout the state. Through the Nitrogen Credit Exchange, established in 2002, the CT program has a goal of reducing nitrogen discharges by 58.5 percent by 2014. Trading provides significant cost savings compared to the state issuing a permit to each facility individually. Trading also provides municipalities with flexibility to make decisions about whether to upgrade and market any credits they earn or to buy credits to meet their permit limit. Nitrogen trading has accelerated the State’s schedule to meet the nitrogen targets.
More information on Water Quality Trading is available at the EPA Water Quality Trading Web page and the CT DEP Nitrogen Control Web page. |
| Hempstead Harbor Seeks to Re-Open Oyster and Clam Fishery (reprinted from Sound Update)
Two million new partners in water quality suddenly appeared in Hempstead Harbor on Oct. 9 — in the form of hard clams and oysters, seeded by Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi and others aboard the historic oyster sloop Christeen. As filter feeders, the new harbor denizens should help cleanse the harbor water. If the seedlings grow to healthy adults, the success may also lead to the reopening of shellfish beds for commercial and recreational harvests.
Mark Tedesco and Louise Harrison of the Long Island Sound Office helped with the seeding at the County Executive’s event, attended also by representatives of the project’s many participants, including the Coalition to Save Hempstead Harbor, the Cornell Cooperative Extension Marine Program, the Hempstead Harbor Protection Committee, Frank M. Flower & Sons Hatchery, and the Town of Oyster Bay. |
Save the Date: Summit on LIS Fishery
Each year anglers reel in millions of fish in the waters of Long Island Sound. Fish such as striped bass, rarely seen a generation ago, are in abundance once again. But amidst the abundant stocks are warning signs. The winter flounder, once a popular recreational and commercial fish, are now rarely seen. The commercial lobster and oyster harvests plummeted in the 1990s, caused by disease and other factors. This year’s Citizen’s Summit, schedule for March 8 in Bridgeport, will look at the successes and failures in the Long Island Sound fishery, and the efforts to maintain a fishery that has been a vital part of the region since colonial times. Topics will include the work fisheries resource managers do to control catch limits to keep stocks abundant, and the recovery programs for specific species such as lobsters and oysters. The Summit, which is sponsored by LISS and Save the Sound, a program of the Connecticut Fund for the Environment, will also look at how resource managers try to maintain general ecosystem health for a water resource home to hundreds of different species. Check LISS’s Web site in the coming weeks for a detailed agenda and registration information. |
| | BioAction Kit “Back Pack” available at NY Sea Grant Office 
teachers deploying a seine at workshop
Yale University’s Peabody Museum is making available a Long Island Sound BioAction Kit “Backpack” for grade 5-9 teachers to use to use for lessons on biodiversity and global climate change. The two kits, which are actually large storage containers containing resources such as thermometers, trays, plastic tanks, posters, and food coloring, are available on loan at the New York Sea Grant/LISS public outreach office at Stony Brook University. Call Karen Palmeri at New York Sea Grant at 631-632-8730 for more information.
The backpacks are part of a project by the Peabody Museum, funded by the Bay and Paul Foundation, to develop a grade 5-9 science guide that would meet New York and Connecticut education curriculum standards. In October, the activity guides were test piloted at a two-day professional development workshop for science teachers and outdoor educators at the Nissequogue River State Park in Kings Park, sponsored by New York Sea Grant and the Peabody. The guide will also focus on biodiversity and global climate change, and uses the lobster die-off that occurred in Long Island Sound in the late 1990s to provide lessons to teach about science inquiry and current issues. The guide should be available by June. |
| Around the Sound
Lecture on Potential for Hurricane Damage in NY Metropolitan Area
Queens College Professor Nicholas Coch will discuss the unique vulnerability the NY metropolitan region has to hurricane damage at the annual Membership Social of the New York State Marine Education Association on Saturday, Dec. 8 at 7 p.m. The event is being held at the Science Museum of Long Island in Plandome. Sandwiches, dessert, and coffee, will also be served. The event is free to NYSMEA members, and costs $7 for nonmember guests. Preregistration is required. Call Anita Freudenthal at 516-798-2545 or Bob Abrams at 516-333-7830 for more information or visit http://www.nysmea.org/.
Hydropower in Connecticut and the Northeast
The Rivers Alliance of Connecticut will be hosting a conference on Hydropower in Connecticut and the Northeast on Jan. 11 at Northeast Utilities, Berlin from 8:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. The conference will examine the role of hydropower in the push for renewable energy sources as well as the implications of the incentives the state and the federal governments are considering for hydro development. The conference will emphasize small, new hydro projects, and recent proposals under consideration in Connecticut and Vermont. Elements of the discussion will include: the impact of new, small hydro on the ecology of rivers; alternatives such as increased efficiency; and what constitutes “green” hydro. For more information, call the Rivers Alliance of Connecticut at 860-361-9349 or visit the Rivers Alliance Web site. |
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| | Interesting Links New Fundamentals of Urban Runoff Management Document Now Available
A second edition "Fundamentals of Urban Runoff Management: Technical and Institutional Issues" was recently published by the North American Lake Management Society (NALMS). This document revises an earlier 1994 edition and was prepared with support from EPA’s Office of Wastewater Management and the Nonpoint Source Control Branch in EPA’s Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds. The update is important because of the tremendous amount of new information available as well as the significant shift in stormwater program direction from the historic mitigation-based approach to a more source-based approach. The document is available at http://www.nalms.org/.
New Tools for Addressing Nitrogen & Phosphorus Pollution
The EPA’s Office of Water is rolling out several new tools to help fight “nutrient pollution" (high loadings of nitrogen and phosphorus) into our waters. The redesigned Nitrogen and Phosphorus Web site now houses scientific literature reviews, monitoring data, guidance manuals, and Web casts to help states establish numeric water quality criteria for nitrogen and phosphorus. The new Web site also offers answers to states' questions about how to use the criteria and a clearinghouse of water treatment technologies and land-use practices. The public can also visit the Web site to learn more about this environmental problem and find out what each of us can do about it.
Futures Fund Grant Awards
Descriptions of the 2007 Long Island Sound Futures Fund awards are now on the LISS Web site. A total of 24 grants were awarded to local governments and community groups in large and small grant categories. Visit Futures Fund. |
| EPA WaterSense
Save Water, Save Energy
It takes a considerable amount of energy to deliver and treat the water you use everyday. American public water supply and treatment facilities consume about 56 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year—enough electricity to power more than 5 million homes for an entire year. | |  | For example, letting your faucet run for five minutes uses about as much energy as letting a 60-watt light bulb run for 14 hours.
Visit EPA WaterSense for more information about water conservation.  Back to top
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Long Island Sound Study EPA Long Island Sound Office
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