Numerous sewage treatment plants throughout New England are at maximum capacity and overflow during periods of heavy rain, sending untreated sewage into Long Island Sound. Millions of people live in New England and Long Island. Heavy rain storms such as Irene have caused scores of sewage treatment plants to overflow, sending untreated waste down to
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Citizens Campaign for the Environment is applauding the CT Senate for passing the Sewage Right to Know Act yesterday, which would require the state to notify the public whenever sewage overflows contaminate local waterways. Click on this environmental headline for more on this story.
The upgrade should eliminate sewage overflows into Wethersfield cove, an inlet of the Connecticut River just south of the MDC sewage treatment plant in Hartford. The Hartford Courant reports.
Low impact development, or LID covers a host of techniques, zoning and engineering practices designed to more environmentally handle stormwater runoff, which in Connecticut has a major impact the water quality in the Sound.
The Associated Press has reported that all of Connecticut’s state beaches had to be closed because of high bacteria from runoff.
A Greenwich resident who thinks the town should do more to ensure the quality of the water that flows from the town’s wetlands into Long Island Sound asked the Board of Selectmen to establish a town commission to deal with stormwater issues.
“The river doesn’t know any governmental boundaries, so we all have to work together,” said Marven Moss, a member of the Pequonnock River Initiative’s Monroe Steering Committee. Save the Sound is leading the initiative. Other watershed initiatives in the state include the Norwalk River Watershed Initiative, Farmington River Watershed Initiative, and Pomperaug River Watershed Initiative.
New Haven’s Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts boasted that a new Stormwater Authority would save residential taxpayers $600,000 a year, the New Haven Independent reports.
“Sound Health 2010″ looks at indicators of the Sound’s health in the areas of water quality, coastal and animal populations, habitats, and land use. See inside for more information and photos from the report. Sound Health 2010, looks back at environmental conditions in the Sound and its watershed over the last two years and compares them to conditions from the last 20 to 30 years.
Byram River backers are hoping a recent New York state grant will help in the river’s ongoing cleanup.
Two inches of rain that Tropical Storm Nicole dropped on the region last week showed the importance of plans to build separate lines for sewage and storm water.
The DEP has revised the requirements for management of storm water runoff from industrial sites under its General Permit program. The revised permit addresses EPA’s concerns and the growing awareness in Connecticut that contaminants in storm water runoff impact the quality of our lakes, rivers, and streams.
A dozen communities in northern Westchester have worked out an agreement on how to spend $10 million to maintain the quality of drinking water in the region.The funding will pay for improvements to storm drains and catch basins that prevent pollutants from entering the Croton reservoir system, and it will create a system for mapping
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HARWINTON — The Board of Selectmen is reviewing ways to implement low impact development on town land to reduce water runoff. Engineer Stephen Trinkaus and Glenn Chalder of Planemetrics have already met with the various land use commissions throughout the summer about their preliminary low impact development (LID) proposals for feedback. via Harwinton Board of
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The Pequonnock River Initiative (PRI) — a partnership between the City of Bridgeport and the towns of Monroe and Trumbull — was formed recently to develop a watershed plan for the Pequonnock River watershed.
Updated with the following story from the Ridgefield Press: A new study of artificial turf fields containing crumb rubber infill conducted by four state agencies shows that health risks are not elevated from playing on the fields, the State Department of Environmental Protection said late Friday. However, higher contaminant levels at one indoor field indicate
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Eichler’s Cove, Newtown’s only public fresh water beach, will be closed at least through Friday according to the local Health District. With no substantial runoff or known failing septic systems in the area, health and wetland officials suspect a significant population of Canada Geese nesting in the area for the highest bacteria counts on record
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Nitrogen Discharges Reduced by 45 percent at Bronx Plant; Project Part of Citywide Plan to Cut Nitrogen Discharges into waterways by 60,000 Pounds Per Day Environmental Protection Commissioner Cas Holloway has announced the operation of enhanced treatment measures to reduce the amount of nitrogen being discharged into the East River at the Hunts Point Wastewater
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Environment and Human Health, Inc. (EHHI) was astonished to learn that despite the significant health and safety concerns shown in the Connecticut Department of Public Health’s (DPH) Artificial Turf Study, the state agency was urged to re-frame its press release so as not to alarm the public. Unbelievably, the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering (CASE), which
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Nationally, Connecticut slipped from 12th place to 13th for percentage of water quality tests that exceeded national standards, according to the National Resources Defense Council’s 20th annual water quality report, The Hartford Courant reported. Factoring out a wildlife anomaly in 2008, Connecticut beaches have been closed or carried posted advisories for 108 days for the
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