Report: State gets C+ in Sound management

State efforts to improve the health of Long Island Sound get an average overall grade of C+ in an environmental group's first "report card" on protecting the waterway.

The report, released Wednesday by the Connecticut Fund for the Environment's Save the Sound program, reported an A grade for protection and restoration of coastal habitat and an A- for migratory habitat.

The group offered a B- grade for beach litter cleanup. Reducing the threat from toxic chemicals earned a C, and the issues of hypoxia or low oxygen, stormwater runoff and stewardship all were rated C-. The worst grade, a D+, was offered for addressing the problem of raw sewage in the water.

"The region is striving for mediocrity when it comes to the health of Long Island Sound," said Leah Schmalz, Save the Sound's director of legislative and legal affairs. Government and the public must act to save the Sound, she said.

The 2011 State of the Sound report is the first to assign grades to New York and Connecticut efforts to protect the estuary.

The grades are based on progress toward meeting goals set in the 1994 Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan for the Sound, and 1996 and 2003 Long Island Sound Agreements among federal and local governments. The goals of those plans include restoring 2,000 acres of coastal habitat; opening 100 miles of dammed rivers for fish passage; reducing by 58.5 percent the human waste nitrogen that contributes to oxygen-reducing algal blooms; and ensuring that the Sound is accessible through public access sites and parks.

"The report illustrates how the Sound needs our attention and investment, as both an economic and environmental imperative," said Rep. Steve Israel (D-Dix Hills), co-chair of the Long Island Sound Caucus in the House of Representatives.

Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, said the report card "shows we've made some meaningful progress, but we also have a long way to go" and that some solutions are "big-ticket items that need federal help."

The report encouraged riverfront protection legislation and the creation of regional stormwater associations as well as a state program of matching funds supporting efforts to preserve and restore coastal areas.

Save Our Sound also called on Congress to reauthorize and fully fund Long Island Sound programs under the Clean Water Act. Legislation to reauthorize the Long Island Sound Restoration and Stewardship Act would extend two water quality and shore restoration programs through 2015 at $325 million.

The measure was introduced in the House by Israel and in the Senate by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).