Community Corner

New Long Island Sound Protection Plan Unveiled at Harbor Island

Despite ominous clouds and rumbling thunder, members of Save the Sound—a Connecticut Fund for the Environment program—and the Long Island Sound Study Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) presented their SoundVision Action Plan yesterday at Harbor Island Park

As officials in Mamaroneck prepare to revise the village’s nearly 30-year old Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan, the topic of protecting the 1,320 square mile Long Island Sound has never been more relevant.  In a organized by the League of Woman Voters of Larchmont-Mamaroneck, it was estimated that approximately 21 million people live on the Sound, with the entire area giving an approximately $8 billion dollar boost to local shore communities.

With a similar motive in mind, the Citizens Advisory Committee of the Long Island Sound—a 38-member organization made up of representatives from organizations in Connecticut and New York like PSE&G, the Marine Trades Association, Save the Sound, and the Nature Conservancy—developed and adopted a plan known as the SoundVision Action Plan. Funding was provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Long Island-based Sun Hill Foundation.

The 26-page Plan outlines four major components of change—protecting clean water, creating a safe place for wildlife to thrive, building environmentally viable Sound communities and investing in projects to preserve and sustain the Sound—along with specific action steps to be taken to execute these larger goals.  To read the SoundVision Plan in it’s entirety, click to the right of this article.

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According to Westchester County Legislator Judy Myers, the SoundVision Plan will complement the LWRP in that it, “provides a backbone, more information, a rationale—it is a great guide for regional planner,” she said, referring to the decision making process undertaken by coastal zone and other committees in regard to waterfront development.

Although an LWRP document typically needs to be approved by the Secretary of State to make sure it’s in compliance with state and federal regulations, the Plan does not necessarily contain specific policy or legal requirements.

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It does, however, identify specific problems in the Sound like the elimination of raw sewage and bacteria build-up, and give specific short and long-term resolutions that can be implemented.

And, although the Plan was just rolled out, several recent local projects were deemed to be compliant under SoundVision including the removal of invasive and non-invasive plants along the Mamaroneck River at Saxon Woods Park this year and the retrofitting of 50 catch basins in the Town of Mamaroneck in 2010.

“Each part of the Action Plan addresses a unique aspect of the Sound,” said Mamaroneck Councilwoman and New York Co-Chair of the CAC, Nancy Seligson, about the plan, the first major conservation plan to address the waters since 1994.

Seligson also discussed water conservation steps that can be taken such as low-impact development—holding stormwater on site and treating it as a resource and not a waste product—and green infrastructure such as the retrofitting of existing development to hold water.  Examples include rain gardens and retention ponds in subdivisions.

“We’re lucky to have this resource [the Sound]—we can’t take it for granted,” she said.

As thunder and ominous clouds threatened to end the press conference early, NY State Senator Suzi Oppenheimer spoke about her contribution to the conservation efforts, including a bill she’s currently supporting that would impose a five cent fee on all plastic bags.  These bags can often be found dangling from trees or washing up on shore, a sight she called “appalling.”

“It’s not simply for the fish, the birds and ecosystem—we seek to protect this unique landscape,” she said.

And yet another disturbing effect of a changing environment and an influx of nitrogen in Sound waters from algae, causing fish to literally leap out of the water to their deaths due to hypoxia, or lack of oxygen.

“The fish suffocate to death.  It’s an awful site,” lamented Myers, adding that the fish often popped up suddenly out of the water onto boat decks and at people’s feet, choking their last breaths.

Some other pollutants in local waters include “plastic bags, hoops and loops that kill animals and ruin stormwater flow,” she said, referring to bags that block stormwater basins so they can’t run properly.

“This is very necessary advocacy,” she said.


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