NOW ON TAP: FUNDS FOR CLEAN WATER

Investing in clean water infrastructure is a win-win proposition. Not only is it critical for vibrant waters and healthy fisheries, these investments create thousands of high quality jobs here in Connecticut. Over the last four years an estimated 9,500 jobs have been created through Clean Water Fund allocations.

However, for years funding for clean water initiatives was put on hold in Connecticut. All that has changed, thanks to efforts by our members and the members of the Clean Water Investment Coalition. For 2008 to 2011 Connecticut committed to providing over $875 million in municipal clean water infrastructure grants and loans. Projects funded with this investment, like Hartford's combined sewer separation and West Haven's denitrification upgrades, help ensure Long Island Sound provides healthy waters for citizens and wildlife alike.

These funds will help us to restore Long Island Sound's "dead zone, an area where oxygen in the water is being depleted due to sewage treatment, land development, groundwater drainage, urban stormwater runoff , fossil fuel consumption and agricultural waste. By acting now, we can help revitalize the Sound and remove the threat to marine animals and plants. Our goal is to fully restore the dead zone by 2014.

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This new funding is not enough to complete all of Connecticut's clean water projects, however. We must invest more to advance the goal of restoring the dead zone by 2014 and to stop annual sewage overflow releases into rivers and the Sound by 2020. You can help by getting on our email action list. The next time the Clean Water Fund comes up for funding, we'll need to get word out in force to our state legislators.

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Click here for information on our other Long Island Sound projects.