Town of Monroe Working on Phase I of Pequonnock Transformation

Press release sent in by Marven Moss, Monroe Land Trust & Monroe Conservation and Water Reserve Commission.

Pequonnock transformation--

Large boulders, flattened and shaped, have been installed to strengthen the riverbank and improve filtration as part of streamside buffer remediation in the vicinity of the footbridge where the Pequonnock River flows into Great Hollow Lake in Wolfe Park.

The work is funded by a $40,000 grant to the Town of Monroe by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Phase I of an initiative to reduce impairment of the river and its tributaries that drain two-thirds of Monroe’s land mass.

The improvement is being managed by a team assembled out of the office of First Selectman Steve Vavrek and consisting of Scott Schatzlein, town engineer and land use director, Chris Nowacki, public works director, Bill Phillips, public works deputy director, Frank Cooper, parks and recreation director, Russell Tice, parks and rec supervisor, and two volunteers, landscape architect Wayne Clarke, and Marven Moss, community activist.

In the spring, a community mobilization of volunteers is planned to plant stands of authentic American chestnut trees, other native species and shrubs and bushes.

About the Pequonnock River Initiative (PRI)

During the summer of 2010 the Pequonnock River Initiative (PRI) was formed as a partnership between the City of Bridgeport and the towns of Monroe and Trumbull to develop a watershed plan for the Pequonnock River watershed. The City of Bridgeport, through a Section 319 grant from the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (CTDEP), retained Fuss & O’Neill, Inc. to perform the technical components of the watershed plan development. The CTDEP also awarded a Section 604(b) grant of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to Save the Sound, a program of Connecticut Fund for the Environment, Inc. and the Southwest Conservation District. Save the Sound is responsible for the formation of a watershed coalition, organizing workshop meetings, assisting in the development of the watershed plan recommendations, and performing public education and outreach. Additionally, Harbor Watch/River Watch, a program of Earthplace, The Nature Discovery Center at Westport, received 319 funding provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Clean Water Act to perform water quality monitoring of the Pequonnock River for the years 2009 and 2010. The monitoring data will be used to assess current water quality conditions in the Pequonnock River and ultimately guide the watershed plan recommendations.