EPA Pollution Mitigation Strategy Applauded By Sound Shore Environmental Organizations

Eight regional environmental organizations are applauding the release of a strategy to cut the amount of nitrogen polluting Long Island Sound.

The comprehensive plan the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency made public included:

• Breathing life back into low-oxygen dead zones;
• Reducing and eventually eliminating toxic and nuisance algae blooms;
• Giving salt marshes a chance to survive and protect neighborhoods by absorbing flood waters and coastal storms;
• Mitigating local ocean acidification.

Save the Sound had submitted a formal petition to the EPA that requested a updated nitrogen reduction plan for the Sound.

The petition was co-signed by Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Connecticut River Watershed Council, Environment Connecticut, Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic, Friends of the Bay, Rivers Alliance of Connecticut and Long Island Soundkeeper.

Save the Sound Executive Director Curt Johnson said nitrogen pollution has been removing the oxygen from the Sound which destroys marshes and fuels algae blooms.

“We will hold off on further legal action to give EPA, New York, Connecticut and towns and cities all around the Sound the chance to transform a great game plan into concrete action that will restore Long Island Sound’s web of life,” he said.

In coordination with Save the Sound and Long Island Sound Study, the EPA will host a webinar on the new nitrogen strategy from noon to 1 p.m. Friday, Feb. 26. The online presentation, which will be geared toward scientists and policymakers, is open to the public. Interested parties may contact events@savethesound.org for further details.