OLR Report 2014-R-0234 answer the questions: What are the primary sources of nitrogen in Long Island Sound (“the Sound”)? What steps is Connecticut taking to reduce the amount of nitrogen entering the Sound? Is the state collaborating with New York or Rhode Island on nitrogen reduction efforts?
Nitrogen in the Sound comes from many natural and human sources. The primary human sources are wastewater treatment plants. Other human sources include urban and agricultural runoff and atmospheric deposition. Excess nitrogen causes reduced oxygen levels, which negatively affect aquatic life.
Connecticut is engaged in many initiatives to reduce the amount of nitrogen entering the Sound, several in collaboration with New York.
Connecticut and New York participate in the Long Island Sound Study (LISS), a bi-state partnership with the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which investigates water quality in the Sound. In 1994, LISS developed a conservation and management plan to protect and improve water quality. The plan identifies hypoxia as a priority concern. LISS is currently updating the plan.
LISS also helped Connecticut and New York develop a goal of reducing the nitrogen from human sources in the Sound by 58.5% by 2014. The goal was included in a federally-approved Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) agreement between the states to reduce nitrogen in the Sound.
According to the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), Connecticut complied with the TMDL goal in 2013. It met the goal by (1) requiring wastewater treatment plants to operate under general permits that gradually reduce the nitrogen discharged and (2) operating a nitrogen credit exchange program.
Connecticut’s other nitrogen reduction efforts include (1) collaborating with the Sound’s upper watershed states, (2) designating the Sound as a “No Discharge Area” for vessel sewage, and (3) operating programs to control nonpoint source pollution (e.g., runoff).
According to DEEP, Connecticut and Rhode Island do not similarly collaborate on nitrogen reduction in the Sound, since Rhode Island has little effect on the Sound’s water quality. (Hypoxia is a condition occurring primarily in the Sound’s western half.)
For more information, read the full report.
