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User:Cfz88/Long Island Sound

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Article Draft

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Objectives/Things I feel should be included:

  • Add more citations overall; some major paragraphs that only have 1-2 footnotes listed at the end
    • Some additional citations aren't in the same reference list and are instead listed at the end of the page under "Sources" which I want to fix for consistency
  • Add important sections to emphasize the importance of LIS and its major habitats
    • Cultural/Environmental significance should be highlighted more
  • Include more recent efforts to preserve & protect area: local organizations/movements
  • History section: condense or combine
  • Floral/fauna section: add visuals (prioritize last?)
  • Section detailed "Burials" I want to condense into another section or remove

Clear and Measurable Goals:

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  • Remove burials section
  • Plan to add/rework history section (adding new information rather than grouping it with glacial history)
  • Add citations all around; especially in uses section
  • Visuals for flora and fauna
  • Add "sources" to "references"
  • WHEN ALL ELSE IS FINISHED: maybe look into adding more new content like environmental significance, habitats, etc.

Articles:

[1] This text offers information from the history of the glacial formation of LIS to the larger implications of the estuary habitat as a food source, transportation, waste management, filter of nutrients, etc. Extensive research and information published by Yale; full text available at university library to check out and look into further* I feel it can add smaller information all around but also as another citation to backup statements made

[2] Breakdown of introductory ideas of features in LIS: habitats, food webs, adaptations, etc. Its a resource for students so highlights very basic introduction of concepts but enough for site visitors to get ideas without too much jargon; I want to breakdown the habitats of LIS in addition to just marshes and this can help with that, also highlights organizations like SeaGrant, Long Island Sound Study (LISS), EPA, Save Our Sound, etc.

[3] Highlights the geological history and glacial structure that created LIS to add more citations into the glacial history section; more on the categories of environments are present that reflect the dominant long-term processes of: erosion or nondeposition; coarse-grained bedload transport; sediment sorting and reworking; and fine-grained deposition. This could be added to habitats sections and importance of the area for preserving the ocean floor and shoreline environments

[4] This journal article researches pollutants and contaminants of LS; provides background on the history of pollution and clean-up and the history of LISS to add to pollution section of wiki article and explain efforts to change it

[5] News article about federal funding for $106 million for the Long Island Sound Geographic Program and LISS; emphasizes that investing in LIS protection is crucial for flood resilience, wastewater treatment, overall preservation; This can be added to the pollution/significance sections

Draft/Changes of Article Body

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Note: these are copied and pasted paragraphs from the article, so the original citations do not show up here like they do on the actual page. Everything I've added citation-wise shows up as the numbered footnotes if I'm writing my own sentences or adding more references when needed. Just keep in mind everything here is cited on the article itself unless I am adding it. Every sentence I edit/change is italicized so you can see my changes :)

Rare and endangered species[edit]

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Rare, endangered and extinct species of the Sound include the eastern spadefoot, a rare, toadlike amphibian that hasn't been recorded in the area since 1935. Its overall coloring is beige or off-white with a pattern of green markings. Small orange dots punctuate this pattern.

As many as 1,500 shortnose sturgeon, listed as 'endangered' by the Endangered Species Act, inhabit the Connecticut River (CDEP 2003, Savoy 2004).[6][7] Approximately 900 of those live downstream of Holyoke Dam[8] (Savoy and Shake 1992). While shortnose sturgeon primarily remain in their natal rivers, they will feed in estuarine waters like Long Island Sound and make extended trips along the Atlantic Coast, tagged individuals sometime being identified in multiple rivers during their lifetimes.

Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) sitting on a tree swallow's nest box in the marsh at Hammonasset Beach State Park, Madison, CT. Ospreys are frequent summer residents of areas like Long Island Sound and other coastal areas in North America.

History[edit]

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Main articles: Lake Connecticut, Lenape, History of Long Island, and History of Connecticut

Long Island Sound was formed when the terminal moraine that dammed the waters of glacial Lake Connecticut failed, and sea water mixed with the lake's fresh waters. Prior to colonization, it's estimated that around 10,000 to 15,000 natives inhabited along Long Island Sound.[1] The first European to record the existence of Long Island Sound was the Dutch navigator Adriaen Block, who entered the sound from the East River in 1614. The sound was known as The Devil's Belt in colonial times and the reefs that run across the sound were known as Devil's Stepping Stones, from which Stepping Stones Lighthouse got its name.

Diamondback terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin) are the only aquatic turtles to reside in brackish water, which makes the Long Island Sound estuary a special habitat for the Northern subspecies.

As the Industrial Revolution grew, Long Island Sound began to be utilized more for manufacturing and production uses that are still observed to this day, like textiles, metal finishing, fishing, and oyster harvesting.[1][9] Yet, the economic and population growth the Industrial Revolution created led to increased pollution. [9] Around the 1950s and 60s, the US Government began to recognize more of the environmental impacts pollution was having on water quality, as well as human health around regions like Long Island Sound. After the Clean Water Act was passed federally in 1972 to protect water quality around the US, the Environmental Protection Agency partnered with Connecticut and New York to pass the Long Island Sound Study (LISS) in 1985 with plans for restoration and clean-up projects in the region. [9] More habitat conservation, health monitoring, and pollution standards have been established between NY and CT in the years since to protect the estuary for future generations. [10]

Uses[edit]

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This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Transportation[edit]

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Ferries provide service between Long Island and Connecticut, notably the Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Ferry (between Port Jefferson and Bridgeport), and the Cross Sound Ferry (between Orient Point and New London). The ferries that cross Long Island Sound carry automobiles, trucks and buses, as well as foot passengers.

Fishing[edit]

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Long Island Sound has historically had rich recreational and commercial fishing, including oysters, lobsters, scallops, blue crabs, tuna flounder, striped bass, and bluefish[11]. CITATION. However, in recent years the western part of the sound has become increasingly deficient of marine life. The fishing and lobster industries have encouraged efforts to identify the cause of the dead water and rectify the problem.[12] CITATION

Lobsters have suffered diseases of unknown cause, but recreational fishing has worked to restore a key component in the food chain, menhaden (a.k.a. "bunker") fish which are a mainstay of striped bass, bluefish and other pelagic fish.[13] CITATION The ban of netting of bunker - which were over-fished in the late 1990s - has significantly improved the quality and volume of the striped bass population in Long Island Sound.[13][14]CITATION

Further development[edit]

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Underwater cables transmit electricity under Long Island Sound, most notably a new and controversial [15] Cross Sound Cable that runs from New Haven in western Connecticut, to Shoreham in central Long Island, and an older one from Rye in Westchester County to Oyster Bay on Long Island. [16] Scientists debate whether submarine power cables are safe for marine ecosystems, but installations like large-scale armoing around cables helps to protect overall ecological impact and provides ecosystem regeneration.[17]

At least one politician running for New York State Assembly has proposed offshore oil drilling in Long Island Sound, despite a lack of evidence that oil can be found there. The proposal met staunch opposition by residents of New York and Connecticut, and environmentalists.CITATION

Over the years, bridges over the sound have been proposed, including a bridge between Rye in Westchester County and Oyster Bay on Long Island; between New Haven, Connecticut, and Shoreham on Long Island; between Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Port Jefferson on Long Island; or between Orient Point, New York, and Rhode Island[18]. A tunnel under the sound, as between Rye and Oyster Bay has also been proposed, to carry both freeway lanes and railroads[19]. However, no crossing has been built since the Throgs Neck Bridge in the early 1960s[20]

Pollution[edit]

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The Long Island Sound ecosystem has historically been polluted by a number of different sources, including industry, agriculture and communities (untreated sewage and urban runoff). Pollutants entering the Sound include toxic substances such as heavy metals; a specific example includes mercury discharged by the hatting industry in Danbury, Connecticut. Other pollutants include pathogens, debris, and nutrients (which contain nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizer runoff).

Eutrophication occurs when bodies of water, like Long Island Sound, are exposed to higher levels of nutrients like nitrogen, causing harmful overgrowth of cyanobacteria that feed on them[21]. Eutrophication can also lead to algal blooms and eventually hypoxia, when runoff into water causes rapid development of algae and phytoplankton that blocks the surface of water from sunlight and deprives oxygen to marine organisms[21]. Eutrophication and its effects are direct environmental impacts on the Sound that are exacerbated by higher temperatures, stratified water columns (when the water is not well mixed vertically) and excess nutrients [22]. Algal blooms result from the overgrowth of algae that dies in large numbers, sinks to the bottom, and decomposes by using available oxygen in the water and leaving little for other species, causing the system to suffer as a whole. To date[when?] the primary targets for water remediation tactics in Long Island Sound have been nutrients discharged by sewage treatment plants and in surface runoff.[23]

Long Island Sound sustains significant populations of fish and nurseries. This biological function has been threatened by both terrestrial and chemical alterations resulting from urbanization of the area. Specifically 25–35% of the tidal wetlands in the Sound have been dredged, filled, and developed over and hypoxia and eutrophication resulting from pollution have led to low dissolved oxygen levels (less than 4.8 mg of oxygen per liter) in the water[24]. The low dissolved oxygen levels limit the fishes' ability to swim, feed, grow and reproduce and loss of habitat prevents success in fish larval growth. The impacts listed here are directly associated with these specific species in Long Island Sound: killifishes, silversides, bay anchovy, eels, menhaden, cunner, tautog, sticklebacks, winter flounder, weakfish, bluefish, tomcod and striped bass.

An example of impacts from nitrogen is a shift in the types of plankton that make up their community in Long Island Sound. Over the last several decades, excess nitrogen may have adversely affected diatoms—microscopic, single-celled algae at the base of the food chain, which make shells ('frustules') of opaline silica. When diatoms are less productive, they are replaced by other phytoplankton such as dinoflagellates or blue-green algae, which grow well in waters with high nitrogen levels, but do not need silica. Such changes in the base of the food chain leads to consequences such as an increase in abundance of jellyfish and decline in shellfish and other fish.

Starting in the 1990s, Connecticut and federal United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials defined no-dumping areas in which commercial or recreational boat users were prohibited from releasing untreated sewage into the Sound near the coastline. In 2007 state and federal officials announced the ban had extended to the entire Connecticut coast and applied to both treated and untreated sewage. New Hampshire and Maine have similar bans, but Massachusetts, Maine and New York do not (all are within the contributing watersheds). From the 1990s to 2007, the number of pumping stations for boat sewage tripled to 90 at marinas up and down the coast. Violators may be charged with a state misdemeanor and face $250 fines, or a federal civil penalty, with fines of up to $2,000.

To address the water quality problems, EPA created the Long Island Sound Study (LISS) in 1985, which led to LISS's Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) to support development of a nitrogen total maximum daily load (TMDL) in 1994 [9]. The TMDL implements innovative strategies, including a nitrogen credit trading program for sewage treatment plants in Connecticut, and bubble permits for sewage treatment plants in New York. Results point to significant nitrogen reductions in Long Island Sound, and significant cost savings. By 1998, a plan to reduce nitrogen outputs of effluent into the Sound was agreed upon by the federal government and the states of New York and Connecticut[9]. The goal was to reduce the amount of nitrogen entering the Sound by 58.5 percent as of 2014. New York City agreed with New York state and Connecticut to reduce nitrogen levels in 2001, but backed off its commitment and was sued by the state. In early 2006, the city agreed to lower nitrogen outputs and was given until 2017 to meet its reduction goals. By 2007, $617 million had been spent in upgrading sewage treatment plants, with 39 out of 104 retrofitted with devices to remove nitrogen.

According to the EPA National Estuary Program Coastal Protection Report for June 2007, the western part of the Sound was in the worst condition. The report gives a "fair" rating to water quality in the sound and poor marks to fish, bottom-feeders and sediment. High levels of PCBs were found in fish samples, and high concentrations of the pesticide DDT were found in sediment. Development resulting from population increases, past industrial pollution and stormwater runoff all contribute to the poor quality of the water, according to the report.

Nitrogen pollution in the Sound has been declining in the 21st century. At the end of 2014, wastewater treatment facilities reached 94 percent of their nitrogen reduction goal set by the TMDL. Achieving this goal has resulted in 108,000 fewer pounds of nitrogen were discharged into the Sound every day. By 2016, both NY and CT attained their goals to reduce nitrogen percentages by 58.5 percent established in the TMDL.[9] According to LISS as of 2018, significant improvements to wastewater treatment plants have led to "over 50 million fewer pounds of nitrogen a year are discharged into Long Island Sound" in comparison to the 1990s.[9] In 2015 the Long Island Sound Study concluded that the Sound is cleaner and healthier than it has been, but still impaired from pollution and habitat loss. To continue improving the quality of Long Island Sound, both ongoing challenges and adapting to new conditions due to climate change need to be addressed.

Dumping of dredged sediment[edit]

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Polluted sediment from harbor, river and waterway dredging has been dumped in four sites in the Sound, although in late 2007 two of them at the eastern end of the Sound were scheduled to be closed at some future date. A dumping site near Stamford, Connecticut, and another near New Haven, Connecticut, were expected to remain open. In 2007, the U.S. EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began a five- to seven-year, $16 million study on more environmentally friendly ways to dredge harbors in the Sound. Dumping the sediment in the Sound is considerably less expensive than other options, according to Connecticut harbor officials and state and federal environmental officials.

Federal officials had concluded that sediment from Bridgeport Harbor was too contaminated for disposal in the Sound, and in 2007 the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) required Norwalk, Connecticut, to "cap" 350,000 cubic yards (270,000 m3) of dumped sediment from a planned Norwalk Harbor dredging project with 75,000 cubic yards (57,000 m3) of material. Silt and sediment from the harbor contains heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, according to DEP officials.

Burials[edit]

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  • Laura Branigan's ashes were scattered over there.

References

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  1. ^ a b c Andersen, Tom (2002). This fine piece of water : an environmental history of Long Island Sound. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-08250-9. OCLC 48376008.
  2. ^ Payne, Diana (2009). "Long Island Sound: Curricular Resource Guide" (PDF). Connecticut Sea Grant. University of Connecticut.
  3. ^ Knebel, Harley J.; Poppe, Lawrence J. (2000). "Sea-Floor Environments within Long Island Sound: A Regional Overview". Journal of Coastal Research. 16 (3): 533–550. ISSN 0749-0208.
  4. ^ Mitch, Azalea A.; Anisfeld, Shimon C. (2010-05-01). "Contaminants in Long Island Sound: Data Synthesis and Analysis". Estuaries and Coasts. 33 (3): 609–628. doi:10.1007/s12237-009-9249-6. ISSN 1559-2731.
  5. ^ Spinella, Sten (February 17, 2022). "Federal, Connecticut and New York officials tout $106 million in funding for Long Island Sound". The Day.
  6. ^ "Working for Nature" Series: Shortnose Sturgeon". Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. 2006-09-26. Retrieved 2023-03-25.
  7. ^ Savoy, T (2004). "Population estimate and utilization of the lower Connecticut River by shortnose sturgeon". The Connecticut River ecological study (1965–1973) revisited: ecology of the lower Connecticut River (1973–2003): 345–352.
  8. ^ Savoy, T; Shake, D (1991). "Sturgeon status in Connecticut waters". Final Report to the National Marine Fisheries Service, Gloucester, Massachusetts.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g "History- Long Island Sound Study". Long Island Sound Study. 2018. Retrieved 2023-03-25.
  10. ^ "Conservation History of Long Island Sound". Audubon Connecticut. 2015-07-02. Retrieved 2023-04-19.
  11. ^ "Game Fish". Long Island Sound Study. Retrieved 2023-04-23.
  12. ^ Seara, Tarsila; Owens, Adrien; Pollnac, Richard; Pomeroy, Robert; Dyer, Christopher (2022-02-01). "Lessons learned from a natural resource disaster: The long-term impacts of the Long Island Sound lobster die-off on individuals and communities". Marine Policy. 136: 104943. doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2021.104943. ISSN 0308-597X.
  13. ^ a b "Cuomo expected to sign bunker fish protection bill". NY State Senate. 2019-04-23. Retrieved 2023-04-23.
  14. ^ Broatch, Kierran (2012-07-30). "Bunker Plentiful in Long Island Sound This Year". Save the Sound. Retrieved 2023-04-23.
  15. ^ Stowe, Stacey (2003-08-24). "Cross-Sound Cable Is Debated Anew". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-04-23.
  16. ^ "Long Island Sound Submerged Cable And Pipeline Areas". deepmaps.ct.gov. Retrieved 2023-04-23.
  17. ^ "Ecological Cable Protection in Long Island Sound". Marine Technology News. 2021-02-24. Retrieved 2023-04-23.
  18. ^ "Oyster Bay-Rye Bridge (I-287, unbuilt)". www.nycroads.com. Retrieved 2023-04-23.
  19. ^ Ritterhoff, Gale (2021-05-26). "The History of Trying to Connect Westchester and Long Island". Westchester Magazine. Retrieved 2023-04-23.
  20. ^ "Throgs Neck Bridge (I-295)". www.nycroads.com. Retrieved 2023-04-23.
  21. ^ a b US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "What is a dead zone?". oceanservice.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2023-03-25.
  22. ^ US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "Responding to Hurricanes". oceanservice.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2023-03-25.
  23. ^ Burg, Robert (2014-10-09). "Water Quality Improves in Long Island Sound". Long Island Sound Study. Retrieved 2023-03-25.
  24. ^ "Habitat Restoration Initiative". Long Island Sound Study. Retrieved 2023-03-25.

Sources

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  • Working for Nature Series: Shortnose Sturgeon, CDEP (Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection) website. 2003. .
  • Savoy, T. 2004. Population estimate and utilization of the lower Connecticut River by shortnose sturgeon. Pages 345–352 in P.M. Jacobson et al. (Eds.) The Connecticut River ecological study (1965–1973) revisited : ecology of the lower Connecticut River 1973–2003. American Fisheries Society Monograph.
  • Savoy, T. and D. Shake. 1992. Sturgeon status in Connecticut waters. Final Report to the National Marine Fisheries Service, Gloucester, Massachusetts.
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