Port Jefferson— Congressman Tim Bishop was joined by local officials and Citizens Campaign for the Environment to announce new bipartisan legislation to protect and restore Long Island Sound. Bishop went to Port Jefferson Harbor to announce the Long Island Sound Improvement Act, which he is introducing with Congressman Peter King. The legislation will improve and restore water quality in Long Island Sound by providing new funding and provides regulatory tools for states and municipalities to protect waters throughout the Sound’s watershed.
“This bipartisan legislation will allow us to take the next steps in the effort to protect the Long Island Sound,” Congressman Bishop said. “Long Islanders know there is an important connection between the health of our environment and the health of our economy. This legislation allows us to protect both.”
The legislation authorization continued appropriations of $40 million for the Sound as well as new funding—$125 million in the first year, and $250 million per year thereafter – for wastewater infrastructure repair, construction, and upgrades, including stormwater systems, and green infrastructure technology and approaches.
“This is a great day for our community and a great day for the Long Island Sound,” Assemblyman Steve Englebright said. “One of the reasons people want to live on Long Island is to have access to this resource.”
Over the past two months, Citizens Campaign for the Environment (CCE) has collected over 16,000 handwritten letters, which have been sent by members in New York and Connecticut to their federal elected officials in support of this legislation.
“We applaud Congressman Bishop’s leadership to protect the Long Island Sound,” Maureen Dolan-Murphy, Executive Programs Manager at CCE said. “Last year, dolphins returned to the Sound. This shows things are working and this legislation will allow us to do even more.”
The legislation also extends the footprint of the Long Island Sound program through the whole watershed that drains into Long Island Sound. This includes elements of New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire. It also seeks to improve accountability by requiring evaluations of the Long Island Sound program every two years to determine whether activities are meeting goals set out in the management plan.
“This is a cost we need to mitigate,” Suffolk County Legislature Deputy Presiding Officer Vivian Viloria-Fisher said. “We need to lower nitrogen into the Sound, but without the help of the federal government, it becomes an unfunded mandate on our community.”
“I congratulate Tim Bishop and Peter King for fighting to restore this funding,” Suffolk County Legislator Ed Romaine, whose district spans the further along the Sound of any legislator, said. “It is critical to our community that we keep the Sound clean and never allow it to become a dump again. We need the ability to implement systems to make sure we’re catching runoff before it enters the Sound.”
The legislation directs the Environmental Protection Agency to develop new regulations for regional stormwater general permits. Under this authority, communities have the option of coordinating their stormwater management activities under a regional stormwater general permit. This practice has been demonstrated to reduce the overall cost and increase the effectiveness of stormwater controls. The legislation would provide a more attractive federal cost-share to entities that voluntarily join regional permits.
“Congressman Bishop has been a leader for the Long Island Sound, whether it’s fighting Broadwater or fighting nitrogen loading,” Brookhaven Town Councilman Steve Fiore-Rosenfeld said.