$10 Million Coming To Clean The Sound. Maybe

Mia Hudson and Marc Mayo and about 40 of their little pals from their New Haven YMCA Youth Center camp were enjoying the sand, the blue and green climbing apparatus, and, had the rains not threatened, would have frolicked in the clean surf of the B‑plus rated waters of the beach at Lighthouse Point Park Wednesday.

A short distance down the promenade, unbeknownst to the kids, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro stood at a portable podium and remembered how she too as a little girl enjoyed the beach every summer and took delight in knowing that current and future generations will likely do the same.

That’s thanks in part to $10 million newly earmarked for Long Island Sound clean-up and other protection projects, which DeLauro announced at a press conference by the water.

Flanked by Mayor Toni Harp and Connecticut Fund for the Environment/Save The Sound Executive Director Curt Johnson, DeLauro said that the funding, contained in the appropriations bill for the Department of Interior and Environment, represents a leap from the $4 million last year.

It reflects a recognition of the importance of the Sound, she added, which she said generates through the tourism and other dependent businesses about $9.6 million to the regional economy.

Yet the new money is not a sure catch.

The Senate version of the bill has only $6 million to benefit the Sound. DeLauro said she is hopeful Connecticut U.S. Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal will be able to get the final conference bill to contain provision for the full $10 million.

DeLauro, along with New York’s U.S. Rep. Steve Israel, co-chairs the House’s Long Island Sound Caucus.

Flanked by enlarged photographs of a die-off of fish due to nitrogen pollution that occurred last spring at Peconic Bay, N.Y., and the glorious humpback whale, which is returning to the Sound because of increased fish populations, Johnson hailed the new funding.

“It’s been 400 years since humpback whales have come back to Long Island Sound. Maybe Rosa talked to them,” quipped Johnson.

If and when it comes through, the money would be deposited at the Environmental Protection Agency Long Island Sound Office in Stamford and distributed from there to municipalities, not-for-profits, and partnerships among groups based on a competitive grant process, said Johnson.

Both he and DeLauro said the grant is building on previous successes in protective initiatives including reducing nitrogen in the Sound and that municipalities like New Haven are now poised to propose and implement further such plans; nitrogen in excessive amounts reduces oxygen in the water resulting in dead zones and a consequent decimation of fish populations.

Johnson said the EPA has set new nitrogen reduction plans and so have the states of New York and Connecticut, he said.

“West River and the Quinnipiac River are suffering from too much nitrogen,” he added, suggesting that some of the future-funded projects would address such problems in those locations.

He praised the past work, including benefits like Lighthouse Point Park beach being rated by his group a ​“B plus going on A” beach, and suggested the range of new projects would include aid to towns so they can build rain gardens to collect rain before it turns into dirty run-off; freeing rivers; replacing rotten dams; and in general improving water quality, bringing back fish, and making beaches safer.

While scientific monitoring and amelioration of nitrogen and other pollution seemed to be the thrust of where future work will be going, Johnson said the best projects, on a competitive basis, will succeed, and that didn’t preclude inventive solutions to flooding issues in areas, for example, such as nearby East Shore Park.

He said he has had, for example, preliminary conversations with City Engineer Giovanni Zinn about alternatives to traditional bulkheads to keep high tides and rising seas out of East Shore Park.

Instead of traditional bulkheads, Johnson said Zinn has discussed with him a concept he termed a ​“living shore.” That is an array of salt marshes, small barriers, and a kelp wall to attract fish.

The idea: ​“To protect the community from flooding but [also] build up the natural systems,” Johnson said.

The appropriations decisions must be made by a federal deadline of Sept. 30. The first new projects benefiting by the new funds would not be implemented until some time in 2017 at the earliest, DeLauro said.

Meanwhile, a few tourists were wandering about Wednesday on the neat and just raked sand of the beach. Others waded into the water. A fisherman heaved his line from the rocky end of the jetty, as a huge tug pushed a ship out from New Haven Harbor into the Sound.

YMCA Camp Director Aishah Brice said, as the kids flocked around her, ​“It’s very beneficial to us to know we have a place to take our kids where it’s safe in the water.”