Attorney Lee D. Hoffman expects Connecticut to become even more aggressive about protecting Long Island Sound in light of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster. For Connecticut attorneys practicing environmental law, there are some learning experiences to be taken from the event and the way British Petroleum has handled it. “One thing this teaches you
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BRANFORD — Democratic gubernatorial contender Dan Malloy unveiled an environmental protection plan today that emphasizes investments in clean water, public transportation and brownfield remediation and redevelopment.

Dan Malloy and Nancy Wyman, the Democratic Party’s endorsed candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor, today released their formal plans for the environment. Malloy and Wyman said that protecting our environment will “improve our overall quality of life, make Connecticut a more desirable place to do business, and put us on a path to a
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The Commissioner of Environmental Protection hereby gives notice of a tentative determination to modify a permit based on an application submitted by University of Connecticut, Marine Sciences and Technology Center (“the applicant”) under section 22a-430 of the Connecticut General Statutes for a permit to discharge into the waters of the state. In accordance with applicable
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GLENS FALLS—The U.S. Department of Energy will be conducted a public meeting in Glens Falls on Thursday, July 15 on a proposed $3.8 billion power line that would run about 385 miles from Quebec to Connecticut under Lake Champlain, the Hudson River and the Long Island Sound. The meeting will be held at the Ramada
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STAMFORD — Once a thriving industry that provided seafaring men a comfortable existence, Long Island Sound’s lobstermen have been virtually wiped out over the past 10 years. A new recommendation by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to prohibit lobstering in the Sound for the next five years will ensure their demise, they say. via
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The Clean Water fund, which is used for projects that will reduce pollution in Connecticut rivers, lakes and the Sound, has helped rebuild Fairfield’s wastewater treatment plant and annually provides funds to investigate the sewer system to see where groundwater might be sneaking in, which would compromise the effectiveness of wastewater treatment. In a report
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Lower nitrogen emissions needed to reduce oxygen depletion in coastal waters Seventy-nine sewage treatment plants around the state that empty either directly into Long Island Sound or into rivers and streams that empty into the estuary will be reducing the amount of nitrogen in the treated wastewater they discharge over the next four years under
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Permit impacts 79 municipal facilities and credit exchange program The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has initiated the process to reissue the General Permit that regulates the amount of nitrogen that can be discharged in wastewater from 79 municipal sewage treatment plants in the state. Nitrogen is a nutrient that spurs algae growth in
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New York State Fails to Clean-Up Waterways, Ignores Legal Requirements of Clean Water Act NEW YORK, N.Y. (June 29, 2010) — The Natural Resources Defense Council filed a lawsuit last night against New York State for failing to take legally required steps this year to clean up one of the primary causes of pollution in
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Sole freshwater tidal marsh on the Thames has made strides, faces challenges Ledyard – At Poquetanuck Cove, the working estuary known as the Thames River steps away from its industrial life of submarines, coal-fired power plants, ferry traffic and sewage plant discharges for an interlude with nature. The 2-mile-long cove is the only freshwater tidal
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Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell has announced that $470 million in grants and loans for local sewer projects and clean water initiatives is expected to be approved when the State Bond Commission meets July 13. “Connecticut’s efforts to improve the quality of rivers, streams and Long Island Sound will receive a tremendous boost,” Gov. Rell
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BRANFORD — Long Island Sound generates more than $5.5 million in revenue each year through the tourism, recreation and fishing industries, but pollution — including beach closings resulting from outmoded sewage treatment facilities — threatens that, environmental advocates said recently at a waterfront press conference. via Advocates cite need to protect Sound – The New
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Technically an estuary, or tidal finger of Long Island Sound, the Thames “is really more akin to a fjord” than a traditional river, Weiss noted, and Norwich harbor, though very deep, doesn’t act like a mixing bowl where the salt water from the Sound combines with the fresh water from the Yantic and Shetucket rivers.
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Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (CT-03) announced a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of $655,100 to the Connecticut Fund for the Environment, Inc., to help with tidal marsh restoration in New Haven and East Lyme, according to a news release. The grant, which is funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
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NEW LONDON — A Toronto-based company seeking to build a $3.8 billion, 420-mile-long underground electric transmission line that will buried beneath Lake Champlain, parts of the Hudson and East rivers and Long Island Sound has begun a series of informational meetings with officials in Connecticut, where the cables will end. via Company begins series of
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Gov. M. Jodi Rell has announced that more than $1.1 million in federal funds are available for boat sewage disposal facilities, or pumpout stations, on Long Island Sound and, for the first time, on the heavily used Candlewood Lake for the 2011 boating season. “The success of pumpout programs for boaters has helped to improve
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Bringing polluters back within the law’s reach In 1969, the abuse of America’s waterways hit a new low. Ohio’s Cuyahoga River—already infamous for the black oil that floated along its surface, the trash that lined its banks, and the complete absence of animal life within its waters—caught fire. The incident, along with a Time magazine
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In what could be the first major economic blow to local fisheries pinned on global warming, regulators are contemplating shutting down the lobster industry from Buzzards Bay to Long Island Sound for five years due to a drastic population drop brought on by temperature changes of just a few degrees in inshore waters. via Cape
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BOSTON — Lobstermen in southern New England are facing a possible five-year fishing ban after biologists made that recommendation to regulators, saying the drastic step is needed to save the depleted stock. via The Associated Press: Regulators weigh 5-year southern NE lobstering ban. The population of lobsters in Long Island Sound and the rest of
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