47 sewage treatment plants reported spills to the DEEP during two 2011 storms and their aftermath. But sewage spills into the Sound are not as rare as a once-in-a-generation storm such as Irene.

With President Obama set to unveil his annual budget plan next month, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has urged the Office of Management and Budget Director to include more federal funding for water and sewer infrastructure in the President’s final FY 2013 budget. Senator Gillibrand called for allocating at least $2.1 billion for the federal clean water program and $1.4 billion for drinking water improvement programs in this year’s blueprint – a significant increase from last year’s FY 2012 budget.

All seals are protected under the Marine Mammal Act of 1972, which was enacted to protect and manage marine mammals such as whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, and sea lions. If you are seal watching on your own, be sure to stay at least 50 yards from all wild seals.

For dozens of projects whose aim is cleaner water for Long Island Sound, as well as the land around it, that means waiting while two key pieces of federal legislation remain caught in the uncertainties of Washington’s political battles, The Connecticut Mirror reports.

Long Island Sound’s population of harbor seal, Phoca vitulina, has grown to more than 3,000, with its eastern part more heavily populated, according to researcher Amy Ferland of the Maritime Aquarium of Norwalk.

Environmental Headlines agrees with the Connecticut Post that “it is good to see U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal, AD-Conn, and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, working together to get Congress to reauthorize the Long Island Sound Stewardship Act, which expires at the end of this year.” Click on this headline for more on this story.

The Long Island Sound Study is participating in the King Tide campaign in an effort to help communities and individuals visualize the impacts of sea level rise. And they need our help. Submit your photos or post them to the Facebook page by Nov. 4. Selected photographs will be posted to the Long Island Sound Study’s Web site in early December.

We should make sure people have opportunities to appreciate Long Island Sound with better-known access points, says David Park, because that’s the way to get the public to support measures to protect the sound.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management has voiced its concerns for many years over the dwindling number of public access points to water for recreational activities. Click this environmental headline for more of this letter to the editor about increasing public access to Long Island Sound.

Nearly a week after Hurricane Irene drenched New England with rainfall in late August 2011, the Connecticut River was spewing muddy sediment into Long Island Sound and wrecking the region’s farmland just before harvest.

During the final SoundVision schooner event held at the Indian Harbor Yacht Club along the Long Island Sound shoreline in Greenwich, Connecticut, the officials cited recent progress in the Long Island Sound restoration, and announced the Long Island Sound Study Action Agenda: 2011-2013. The Action Agenda contains 54 actions organized around four themes: Waters and Watersheds, Habitats and Wildlife, Communities and People, and Science and Management.

Once again, they’ve gone too far.

The radical anti-environment leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill that would cripple the Clean Water Act, the best defense that Long Island Sound and all of Connecticut’s waterways have against polluters.

We cannot let Congress unravel decades of progress toward protecting the Sound and toward restoring waterways that were polluted for generations. Environment Connecticut reports.

The Associated Press has reported that all of Connecticut’s state beaches had to be closed because of high bacteria from runoff.

Save the Sound, the Citizens Advisory Committee of the Long Island Sound Study (CAC), and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-3) discussed the SoundVision Action Plan, a two-year action plan for the restoration and preservation of Long Island Sound at City Point Dock in New Haven. They were also joined by State Senators Martin Looney and Toni Harp, New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr., and representatives from Sound School and Schooner Inc.

A comprehensive plan to save the Long Island Sound was unveiled Monday afternoon in Port Jefferson after local municipalities from New York and Connecticut agreed on common goals that aim to preserve the shared body of water, the Shelter Island Reporter reports.

A new study on the health of Long Island Sound calls for more than $6 billion in improvements to wastewater plants that discharge into rivers or directly into the Sound, along with increased public involvement in efforts to improve water quality. Sound Vision, a 26-page report that lays out a plan for the next 10
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The SoundVision Action Plan to be unveiled today at 3 in Mamaroneck, NY, contains four major components: protecting clean water to achieve a healthy Sound; creating safe and thriving places for all Sound creatures; building Long Island Sound communities that work; and investing in an economically vibrant Long Island Sound. The underlying SoundVision planning process was supported with funding from Long Island Sound Study, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Sun Hill Foundation. This summer’s schooner tour is made possible by support from the New York Community Trust. Click on this environmental headline for more information about this event.

The restoration of one of Long Island Sound’s most significant fish and wildlife habitats has been completed. Manursing Lake, next to the county’s Edith G. Read Natural Park and Wildlife Sanctuary in Rye, was restored in two phases to improve drainage.

Fort Trumbull State Park was one of many New London locations where people turned their attention to lighthouses this holiday weekend. Representatives from the Coast Guard, the Stonington Historical Society, and the Norwalk Seaport Association were on hand to speak about these local icons.

The Long Island Sound Foundation’s Watershed Drawing Contest honored winning students across the state at ceremonies held recently at Lighthouse Point Park in New Haven.