Litter Boom Installed In Rooster River In Fairfield

FAIRFIELD, CT — In an effort to help keep the river clean, Fairfield has installed a floating, litter-collecting boom in the Rooster River in the Tunxis Hill area.

The project is a partnership between the town's Conservation Department and Westport's Harbor Watch at Earthplace, and will ultimately play a small role in helping to keep Long Island Sound clean.

On Tuesday, town and Harbor Watch officials cut a ribbon near the new boom, which has already collected litter and debris.

"So, not only is this litter boom going to remove trash from the Rooster River in [nearby Bridgeport] and the town, but also prevents it from going further downstream into Ash Creek and Long Island Sound," Fairfield Conservation Director Tim Bishop said.

Funding for the boom came entirely from "nip" liquor bottle sales money Fairfield receives annually. The so-called "Nickel per Nip" environmental fee produced $2.4 million for Connecticut cities and towns during the most recent reporting period, covering October 2025 through March 2026, according to the Wine and Spirit Wholesalers of Connecticut.

During the six-month period, Fairfield received $17,615.75 from the nip fund.

"One of the nice things about this is that because of the nip money, Fairfield taxpayers are not footing the bill for the boom project," Bishop said.

Members of the Harbor Watch at Earthplace team will wade into the river periodically to clean the litter and debris from the floating boom.

"This project has been many years in the making, and after seeing a presentation where a Long Island town installed a trash trap and was able to document hundreds of pounds of trash removal in just one year, we were inspired to get this technology to Connecticut, and we could not have asked for better partners than the Town of Fairfield to help us achieve this goal," said Harbor Watch Director Nikki Spiller.

In addition to collecting garbage, the boom will also help collect data, according to Spiller.

"Through our bacteria monitoring in the Ash Creek watershed, we often observe trash along the riverbank and sunk on the riverbed," Spiller said. "This waterway made the perfect candidate for a trash trap. My team is excited to not only remove the unsightly trash from the waterway, but collect actionable data on the material type and item types collected in order to trash trace the trash back to the source."

While she said the boom will be a big help, First Selectperson Christine Vitale had a request of residents.

"And I would just ask, if you're living upstream, while we have this litter room, it would be great if we just didn't litter and didn't use our waterways as a trash disposal," Vitale said, adding that the boom has already collected a lot of garbage less than 24 hours after installation.

"I'm looking at it right now, and it's a little bit frightening."