The Western Narrows, the portion of the Long Island Sound closest to New York City, have received a failing grade in a new water quality report. But environmental researchers say some optimism is also embedded in that “F.”
In its new report card, the environmentalist group Save the Sound found too much nitrogen and not enough oxygen in the waters of the Western Narrows. In conditions like this, water takes on a putrid look, and waves of dead fish float ashore. It’s not safe for swimming, and local seafood economies suffer.
But if the nitrogen diminishes and oxygen levels ascend, then human, plant and animal life can flourish. Peter Linderoth, an environmental scientist and director of water quality at Save the Sound, said that despite the failing grade, the Western Narrows have improved during the 14 years of their water quality study — along with the rest of the Long Island Sound. Save the Sound releases report cards every other year.
This edition upped the Western Narrows' score from 0% to 51%. Save the Sound granted As to the eastern portions of the Long Island Sound, and the grades decreased steadily as one moved westward toward New York City.
Linderoth said this improvement means people can once again safely swim in the Long Island Sound, mostly in the eastward basins. Marine life is also rebounding, with whales returning after a hiatus of more than two decades.
“The whales are so high up on our food web — the fact that they're there means that ecologically speaking, they're sustaining all the other levels of the food web that would be necessary to see those whales and dolphins come in,” said Linderoth.
Linderoth said he became interested in looking at water pollution after growing up amid a period of stagnated life on the western Long Island Sound in the 1980s. He recalled seeing dead fish blanketing the water’s surface, and lobsters crawling ashore to escape the dirty water.
“In 1987, the western part of the Long Island Sound was dead and dying. The oxygen levels were so low that it couldn't support marine life,” he said.
Over time, federal and state environmental policy helped reduce the amount of nitrogen released in the water, as did upgrades to sewage systems and wastewater treatment plants — major contributors of this pollutant. New York and Connecticut introduced nitrogen pollution limits in 2000, which aimed to cut nitrogen levels by more than half of where they were a decade earlier.
Linderoth said it took 10 to 15 years for the waters to get noticeably cleaner. But he added that the rate at which the water has been getting cleaner has begun to stall. Warming waters can also lead to lower levels of the dissolved oxygen, hurting the marine life that has only recently been restored.
New proposals geared toward turning urban areas into rainwater sponges could help keep nitrogen runoff from entering waterways, he said.
“This is not the time to rest on nitrogen pollution,” Linderoth warned.
