Benefits of the watershed approach:
· Targets limited resources to achieve the most environmental benefit
· Defines a unit in which to measure results
· Develops a sense of identification with the watershed and a stewardship ethic
· Shares responsibility for watershed protection and management with a variety of stakeholders
· Considers issues of sustainable growth

Managing a watershed is based on understanding it as a hydrologic and ecological system and involving people who live and work there. Based on experience in Connecticut and elsewhere in the nation, water resource managers have concluded that comprehensive watershed management is best suited for smaller basins. This is because the larger the watershed, the more variables there are involved and, therefore, the more difficult it is to achieve any measurable results in a reasonable amount of time. Both the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (CTDEP) and the New York Department of Environmental Conservation have utilized a large proportion of their annual Clean Water Act section 319 grants over the past five years to target priority watersheds for nonpoint source management. A listing of these watersheds and their respective management projects are provided below.
Experience with these watershed projects oriented toward nonpoint source management has led state managers to believe that a more comprehensive approach that addresses point sources, water quantity, and habitat degradation in conjunction with nonpoint source problems is desirable. CTDEP, EPA, and Natural Resources Conservation Service are currently planning initiatives for the Quinnipiac and Norwalk Rivers that will attempt to take a more comprehensive approach, and should provide good models for future watershed management programs. Long Island Sound water quality depends on the success of these projects and those modelled after them in the years to come.
Mel Cote is a watershed specialist with the New Enland Regional Office of the US Environmental Protection Agency.

WHAT IS A WATERSHED?
A watershed is the land that water flows across or under on its way to a stream, river or lake. Think of the hills in your neighborhood—a drop of water falling on one side will roll into one watershed, and a drop falling on the other side becomes part of another.
The landscape is made up of many interconnected watersheds or basins. Within each one, all water runs to the lowest point—a stream, river or lake. Along the way, the water flows across farm fields, forest land, our backyards, city streets or it seeps into the ground and travels as groundwater. As the water moves, it picks up contaminants along the way, and carries it into our water bodies.
We all live in a watershed and we all influence what happens there. What ever happens in our own small watershed also affects the larger watershed downstream.
The watershed for Long Island Sound is made up of thousands of smaller basins, draining over 16,000 square miles. The largest of these watersheds is the basin of the Connecticut River which begins its journey in Canada. The Long Island Sound watershed encompasses almost the whole state of Connecticut, and parts of Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and New York. Over 8 million people live and work in the LIS watershed.

EPA Watershed Events Newsletter
This newsletter is intended to update interested parties on the development and use of watershed protection approaches. These approaches consider the primary threats to human and ecosystem health within the watershed, involve those people most concerned or able to take actions to solve these problems and then take corrective actions in an integrated and holistic manner.
To subscribe contact:
John T. Pai
Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds
US EPA (4501F)
401M Street, SW
Washington, DC 20460
(202) 260-8076

States Receive Pollution Grants
The following is a listing of the watershed projects in New York and Connecticut supported by federal Clean Water Act grant funds, most of which are focused on urban and agricultural nonpoint source pollution (NPS) abatement and habitat restoration. Activities common to these projects include: identification of nonpoint sources and habitat impairments; technical assistance to municipalities; public education; volunteer monitoring; and Best Management Practices demonstrations.
Connecticut Projects
Mattabesset River Watershed NPS Program Contact: Ann Hadley, Middlesex County SWCD, (860) 345-3219
Scantic River Watershed NPS Program Contact: Denise Conkling, Hartford County SWCD, (860) 688-7725
Hockanum River Watershed NPS Program Contact: David Askew, Tolland County SWCD, (860)875-3881
Quinnipiac River Watershed NPS Program Contact: Emly McDiarmid, Yale University,860) 432-3026
West River Watershed NPS Program Contact: Emly McDiarmid, Yale University, (860) 432-3026
Sasco Brook Watershed NPS Program Contact: Fairfield County SWCD, (203) 743-5453
Yantic River Watershed Agricultural Pesticide and Nutrient Management Project Contact: Frank Himmelstein, UConn/CES, (860) 875-3331
Fenger Brook Watershed Management Study Contact: Paul Stacey, CT DEP (860) 424-3728
Jordan Cove Watershed Urban National Monitoring Project Contact: Bruce Morton, Aqua Solutions, (860) 289-7664
Still River Watershed Stormwater Management Project Contact: Jack Kozuchowski, City of Danbury, (860) 797-4625
New York Projects
Town of Mamaroneck Storm Drain Jet Cleaner Contact: Caesar Manfredi or Larry Wilson, NYS DEC, (914) 332-1835
Village of Mamaroneck Nonpoint Source Pollution Prevention and Analysis Project Contact: Caesar Manfredi or Larry Willson, NYS DEC, (914) 332-1835
Village of Larchmont, Storm Water Program Contact: Caesar Manfredi or Larry Wilson, NYS DEC (914) 332-1835
Town of Brookhaven Conscience Circle Infiltration Trench Contact: Rob Schneck, NYSDEC (516) 444-0405
Town of Brookhaven Dyke Road Runoff Improvements for Little Bay Contact: Rob Schneck, NYSDEC, (516) 444-0405
Town of Oyster Bay Stormwater Runoff Mitigation Program Contact: Rob Schneck, NYSDEC (516) 444-0405
The following Natural Resources Conservation Service projects in Connecticut focus primarily on agricultural nonpoint sources and flood control:
Housatonic River Contact: Kathy Johnson, NRCS (860) 626-8258
Scantic River Contact: Tom Morris, UConn, (860) 486-0637
Norwalk River Watershed Flood Control Project Contact: Phil Renn, NRCS, (860) 487-4016

Long Island Sound Nonpoint Source Pollution Planning In Westchester County
In January 1992, Westchester County Executive Andrew P. O’Rourke formed a 30-member “Citizen’s Committee” to evaluate means of reducing nonpoint sources of nutrient pollution throughout Westchester County and to explore how local action could help reduce pollution to Long Island Sound. Over the next year and a half the Committee developed 33 recommendations to control pollution from urban runoff. These recommendations were accepted and a Steering Committee was appointed to work with the County Planning Department to oversee their implementation.
A major component of the County Executive’s program involves intermunicipal watershed planning throughout Westchester’s portion of the Long Island Sound watershed. The portion of the Long Island Sound watershed located within Westchester County comprises 69,699 acres and supports approximately 300,000 people or one-third of the county’s population. Watershed plans incorporating best management practices, land use, and institutional mechanisms are being developed to minimize the impact of urban pollution on interior waterways and the Sound. Westchester’s watershed planning effort involves nineteen municipalities within 6 subwatersheds that drain to Long Island Sound. Nonpoint source management plans are being prepared for these 6 areas under the guidance of intermunicipal “Watershed Advisory Committees” (WACs) consisting of representatives from each constituent community and the County Planning Department. The watershed plans being developed by each WAC have two major goals: preventing an increase of nitrogen and related nonpoint source pollutants beyond the current condition, and implementing measures to further reduce these pollutants.
To meet these goals, each WAC is taking part in a two-phased watershed planning process. The first phase includes creation of a comprehensive watershed profile that describes general demographics of each watershed, the land use within the watershed area, natural features of the watershed system (wetlands, watercourses and waterbodies) and a matrix of municipal ordinances that are applicable to water quality in Long Island Sound. The first phase of the planning process also includes the collection, refinement and computerized mapping of key baseline data. The maps depict wetlands and hydrography, wetland and riparian buffers, land use, zoning, open space parcels, existing stormwater detention facilities, and large vacant parcels vulnerable to development. This baseline information is being used to evaluate opportunities to improve land use decision-making, protect and restore natural systems that renovate water quality, and install or retrofit facilities to improve their water quality functions.
The second phase of the process involves development of a Nonpoint Source Watershed Management Plan, outling actions recommended to reduce nonpoint source pollution. The result of each phase will be presented to the constituent municipal boards for review and approval.
The recommendations of the watershed plans are expected to take the form of community education programs, revisions to local laws affecting water quality, modification of municipal roadway or catch basin cleaning programs, retrofit of dry detention basins to “first flush” pollutant removal, restoration or construction of wetlands, reclamation of riparian buffers, and other similar actions. Ideally, recommended actions would be implemented by community groups, schools, corporations and public agencies.
Watershed planning for WACs 1, 3 and 5 began in January, 1995. WAC 1 comprises the Silvermine, Mill and Mianus River subwatersheds, located in portions of Lewisboro, Pound Ridge, Bedford and North Castle in New York and six towns in Connecticut. WAC 3 comprises the Blind, Beaver Swamp, and Brentwood Brooks as well as the Port Chester Harbor subwatersheds. These subwatersheds occupy portions of the Town/Village of Harrison, the City of Rye and the villages of Mamaroneck, Port Chester and Rye Brook in New York and the Town of Greenwich in Connecticut. WAC 5 comprises the Stephenson Brook, Pine Brook and Larchmont Harbor subwatersheds. These subwatersheds occupy portions of the City of New Rochelle, the Town of Mamaroneck, and the villages of Larchmont, Pelham Manor, Mamaroneck and Pelham in Westchester County and the City of New York. Although the WAC boundaries encompass municipalities in Connecticut, the current initiative is limited to areas within Westchester County. These three WACs are entering the second phase of the watershed planning process with a goal of completing the Watershed Plans by the end of 1996. Phase 1 planning activities for WACs 2, 4, and 6 are targeted to begin this summer with completion by the end of 1998.

If you have questions or would like more information regarding Westchester County’s Long Island Sound Watershed Planning efforts, please feel free to call the Westchester County Department of Planning at (914) 285-4422.
Editors Note: The Westchester County Nonpoint Source Pollution Planning effort is an example of the types of local action that are growing out of the Long Island Sound Study. This type of local action is a critical component of the overall strategy to successfully achieve our protection and restoration goals for the Sound.

CT DEP Develops Watershed Model by Paul Stacey
For a number of reasons, including the need to manage nitrogen loads to Long Island Sound, the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (CTDEP) is investigating use of a watershed approach to more effectively manage water quality problems. This is especially key to nonpoint source control since nonpoint pollutants can originate anywhere within the watershed. While the watershed’s “end of the pipe” might be considered the mouth of the river where the pollutants all come together and are discharged to Long Island Sound, there are also non-estuarine waters and habitat throughout the basin for which management needs and objectives must be established and that will benefit from a comprehensive, watershed approach to management.
Since there is no meaningful crossover of pollutants between neighboring watersheds, the inventory and management focus is very practical and tidy within each watershed. However, a watershed approach has even broader appeal and value. Through a comprehensive watershed management structure, CTDEP can draw in and consider other management activities of relevance in the watershed, such as flooding, diversion, in-stream flow, land development, wetlands preservation, recreation, habitat, and pollution prevention, to ensure that all management actions work in concert rather than against one another.
To improve understanding of watersheds and their contributions of nutrients to Long Island Sound, CTDEP is using a Clean Water Act 104(b)(3) grant from EPA to construct watershed models for all the basins in the state. HydroQual, Inc., the consultant that prepared the Long Island Sound water quality model, has been selected to conduct the work and the project will begin this spring. The objectives of the project are:
· to quantify all key sources of nutrients within each of the six nutrient management zones (watersheds) identified by the LISS and their delivery efficiency to Long Island Sound;
· to identify nonpoint source management opportunities within each zone;
· to compile data within a watershed model framework that allows load and delivery analysis of management options; and
· to test some relevant management scenarios based on management strategies developed by the LISS.
HydroQual will be using a tested model called the Hydrologic Simulation Program or HSPF, for the Connecticut watersheds. The HSPF model is being successfully employed in the Chesapeake Bay drainage and came highly recommended by the Chesapeake Bay Program. To ensure a high quality product, HydroQual will subcontract with AquaTerra, Inc., a California firm whose staff were involved in development of the HSPF model and are recognized authorities on its application. The effort will be further enhanced from a management perspective by including the Center for Watershed Protection of Silver Spring, Maryland in the project. The Center is widely recognized for its efforts in stormwater and nonpoint source control and publishes the journal, “Watershed Protection Techniques.” This consulting team will receive assistance from CTDEP and from a steering committee composed of appropriate representatives of Connecticut, New York, EPA, and the LISS.
The HydroQual modeling effort is expected to provide many benefits as the state experiments with watershed approaches to management. Over the next few years, CTDEP will be putting the watershed approach to the test in the Quinnipiac River basin in south central Connecticut. A federal Clean Water Act Section 319 (nonpoint source) grant is being awarded through CTDEP to the Center for Coastal and Watershed Systems at Yale University to help identify needs for nonpoint source control in the basin through development of a watershed plan. In concert with that effort, CTDEP will bring other relevant water and habitat quality and quantity issues, and human use objectives, to the table to ensure compatibility of actions.
This concept of watershed management will not succeed, however, without strong participation from local government and citizen support. That is because so many of the solutions for improving water quality, particularly nonpoint aspects, lie in the hands of local land use decision makers and individual actions, rather than in steel and concrete treatment systems. There is no substitute to mother nature for treating runoff, no manufactured habitat as viable for fish and wildlife as natural habitats, and very little elasticity in assimilative capacity of land or water once thresholds of pollutant loading and development are exceeded. Cooperative efforts among communities that share a watershed is a key to good management and is being fostered in the Quinnipiac River basin and in other watershed management efforts in Connecticut. Citizens watershed associations are springing up throughout the state that often involve monitoring and activism to ensure land use decisions are compatible with water quality and habitat goals. In the Quinnipiac River effort, the Quinnipiac River Watershed Association will be a full partner in the Section 319 project and a key to effective implementation of management actions, particularly in the education and awareness areas.
There are many challenges in developing a successful watershed approach, including the sheer complexity of natural conditions and human activities that all must be weighed to ensure management plans achieve expected results when implemented. Providing such assurance requires a massive effort, even in a modest-sized basin like the Quinnipiac, and a more sophisticated understanding that computer models, like the HSPF model, can provide. Planning and regulatory staff at all levels of government must refocus efforts in a new direction without leaving fundamentally sound regulatory programs behind. Simply communicating among the myriad regulatory and user interests within the watershed is a large, but necessary, undertaking if the new approach is to be effective. CTDEP is committed to testing this approach in the belief that it is a more sensible way to manage problems and to ensure more widespread coordination and compatibility of management activities.
Paul Stacey is a Supervising Environmental Analyst for Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection.

Watershed Initiatives for Hempstead Harbor and Oyster Bay-Cold Spring Harbor
Local governments around two of New York’s Long Island Sound embayments are joining forces to combat nonpoint source pollution. Over the next year, communities around Hempstead Harbor and Oyster Bay-Cold Spring Harbor will work cooperatively on watershed management plans to reduce the amount of nonpoint source pollution entering their coastal waters.
Each of these projects is noteworthy because they represent the first cooperative watershed management efforts on Long Island. They are also significant because they represent a truly grassroots watershed management planning process.
Both efforts will draw on information from the Long Island Sound Study Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan and the Long Island Sound Coastal Management Program, as well as local studies and input from experts.
The Hempstead Harbor Protection Committee, which has been meeting since May 1995, coalesced around an informal discussion among local elected officials about the future of Hempstead Harbor. Each of the local governments signed a voluntary cooperative agreement to prepare and implement a water quality improvement program for Hempstead Harbor. The committee is composed of representatives of the towns of North Hempstead and Oyster Bay, the City of Glen Cove, Nassau County, and the villages of Sands Point, Flower Hill, Roslyn, Roslyn Harbor, and Sea Cliff.
The committee has hired Ms. Amy Waterman to oversee preparation of a detailed watershed management plan, which will be completed in 1997. The communities have made a financial commitment which will partially support necessary consulting services. The New York State Department of State has provided additional funding through the Environmental Protection Fund, Title 11 Local Waterfront Revitalization Program, and federal coastal zone funding.
Fourteen local governments surrounding Oyster Bay and Cold Spring Harbor are preparing to sign an intermunicipal agreement to undertake a watershed improvement program. Cooperators include the towns of Oyster Bay and Huntington, Nassau and Suffolk counties, and the villages of Cove Neck, Centre Island, Lattingtown, Matinecock, Mill Neck, Upper Brookville, Muttontown, Oyster Bay Cove, Laurel Hollow, and Lloyd Harbor.
The Oyster Bay-Cold Spring Harbor complex supports Long Island’s most significant oyster shellfishery. The area has long been the focus of community stewardship. Citizens, local governments, and environmental groups have all played a vital role in protecting the resources of the area. This is one of the main reasons this embayment complex has such a high degree of ecological integrity, while lying only 20 miles from New York City.
The watershed plan will identify short- and long-term actions that would enhance, protect, and preserve the significant ecological resources of the watershed, most important of which is protection of water quality. The plan will provide a road map for implementation of recommended actions ranging from public volunteer projects to priorities for state and federal investment to refinement of local laws.
In addition to funding, the Department of State and Department of Environmental Conservation are providing technical assistance and support for Hempstead Harbor and the Oyster Bay-Cold Spring Harbor plans. Department of State staff have been particularly involved in the Oyster Bay-Cold Spring Harbor area, organizing public workshops to focus on local issues and drafting the plan document. This document will also compliment the Oyster Bay/Cold Spring Harbor Complex Habitat Management Strategy prepared by the Department of Environmental Conservation.
These cooperative planning efforts are models for other local governments around Long Island Sound that want to prepare watershed management plans to protect their embayments and safeguard the environment and economic benefits of a cleaner Long Island Sound.

Protecting a Last Great Place: The Tidelands Watershed Projects by Chester Arnold
Trends in the scope of natural resource protection and land use regulation seem to be going in opposite directions. Resource protection and management programs are increasingly focused on Mother Nature’s organization -- ecosystems or watersheds. Land use decisions, however, are driven by political jurisdictions, which in this region are firmly rooted at the local level.
It’s been said that “knowledge is power,” and maps can be a uniquely effective tool for transferring knowledge, with their ability to convey complex information in a succinct and understandable way. With watershed maps serving as the common denominator, watershed-wide issues can be discussed while still recognizing the dominant role of municipal policies and individual actions in determining land use. Armed with this knowledge, local officials and land owners are much better able to work together to prioritize problems, discuss solutions, and chart courses of action for the protection of their local natural resources.
The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the University of Connecticut Cooperative Extension System (CES) have teamed up to bring these powerful information tools to local officials and landowners in the Chester Creek and Eightmile River watersheds, two sub-basins of the lower Connecticut River area designated by TNC as the Tidelands “Last Great Place”. The Tidelands region was chosen because of its exemplary complex of high quality salt, brackish and freshwater tidal marshes, and the many threatened and endangered species that the complex supports (LISS Update Winter 1995). The Chester Creek and Eightmile River watersheds drain to two of these marshes.
Colorful, hi-tech maps developed using computerized mapping technology are being used to reconcile watershed-based thinking with the reality of local land use decision-making. The Tidelands projects are an outgrowth of UConn’s Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officials (NEMO) Project, which has developed an effective educational approach using computer generated maps and satellite-derived land cover information to teach local officials about the connections between land use and water quality. With the Tidelands “Last Great Place” designation in 1993 as the catalyst, CES and TNC staff conceived the watershed projects, which also involve Connecticut Sea Grant and Envirographics, Inc. as partners. A critical boost was provided by two one-year “start-up” grants from the Environmental Protection Agency.
The Tidelands projects expand on the NEMO model. The EPA funding enabled the collection and digitizing of an impressive body of information which has allowed the project team to expand the range of the educational programs beyond nonpoint source pollution to include other topics relevant to the watershed, such as forest stewardship, open space management, and streamside property management. An expanded list of educational topics translates to additional target audiences, broadening the constituency base for the projects. While the nonpoint and open space programs remain targeted at municipal officials and local groups like land trusts, the forestry and property owner programs are largely aimed at individuals.
The most important feature of these projects, however, is the close collaboration between the public/private project team from TNC and UConn, and the towns within the watersheds. Advisory committees made up of local officials and land owners from the towns in the watersheds advise and assist the project team (or visa versa!) every step of the way. And, while it often takes years for educational programs to bear fruit in the form of significant changes to local land use policies or practices, significant progress has been made. For instance, the Chester Creek Advisory Committee, with the approval of the Chester Board of Selectmen, are pursuing a list of actions that includes development of comprehensive watershed management and open space plans, multi-commission review of water quality issues and forest management strategies, continuation of elementary school environmental studies focused on the watershed, and investigation of the development of a town Natural Resources Center.
Chester Arnold is a Water Quality Educator with the University of Connecticut Cooperative Extension System

Results of the 1995 International Beach Clean Up
What a success for the marine life along the shore and underwater of Long Island Sound. Connecticut volunteers cleaned 23 miles of shoreline collecting 4,028 pounds of debris. There were 3 underwater cleanups, a first for Connecticut. New York volunteers collected 7,036 pounds of debris from 27.5 miles shore and divers gathered 4,355 pounds of trash from the depths of the Sound.
1996 Clean Up plans are underway for September. In Connecticut contact Peg VanPatten at (203) 445-3459 and in New York contact Barbara Cohen at (718) 471-2166.

New EPA - NRCS Watershed Management Initiative
The EPA Long Island Sound Office and the US Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) have recently launched a joint watershed initiative to help achieve the goals of the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) for the Long Island Sound Study.
NRCS has assigned Water Quality Coordinator Walter Smith to begin the task. Smith will work with local governments, community groups, residents and property owners and federal and state agencies to identify opportunities to improve the quality of the water resources that drain into Long Island Sound. Smith will be looking at ways that NRCS can assist the clean up effort underway for Long Island Sound.
Smith’s goal is to bring a broader understanding of water quality issues-especially nonpoint source pollution-by promoting a watershed focus to natural resource decision-making. He will work to develop a cooperative framework by which the federal, state, local and citizen partnerships can maximize resources to improve conditions both locally and in Long Island Sound.
To get started in this initiative, Smith is working on three fronts. His major focus is to develop a model watershed planning effort demonstrating cooperative approaches to solving natural resource problems. One watershed will be targeted for comprehensive planning ineach state. Strategies will be developed for protection, remediation, and restoration to help achieve the land use and water quality goals outlined in the CCMP. Currently, Smith is talking to communities and groups in the Norwalk River watershed in Connecticut to assess the level of interest in pursuing this project. He is also working with the Citizen’s Advisory Committee to identify a watershed in New York for development of a model planning program.
Under the new watershed initiative, the EPA Long Island Sound Office and NRCS worked with the CTDEP and the DEP’s Rivers Advisory Committee to sponsor a statewide watershed management workshop held May 17 at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain.
Smith is also providing assistance to existing watershed projects in New York and Connecticut. Current efforts include assistance to the Fairfield County Soil and Water Conservation District’s Sasco Brook Watershed Project for nonpoint source pollution control, the Town of Greenwich is investigating sources of pathogen in the Tom’s Brook Watershed, and the Alley Pond Environmental Center in Queens for the Alley Watershed.
Funding for the first year of this two-year initiative was provided jointly by the Long Island Sound Study and Connecticut Office of NRCS. Smith can be reached at (203) 977-1543.

WATERFACT:
1/4 teaspoon of oil will form a film over about 2000 square feet of the water's surface.
1 quart of motor oil contaminates 250,000 gallons of water, more water than 30 people will drink in a lifetime.
The oil from 1 engine (4-6 quarts) can produce an 8 acre oil slick.

URL: http://www.epa.gov/region01/eco/lis/sprt96tx.html

United States Environmental Protection Agency