New Haven Harbor Watershed

Environmental Monitoring Program

Meteorological Data Monitoring

A- Project Need

On July 30, 2004, a letter was sent from the Long Island Sound Study (LISS) Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) to the members of the Long Island Sound Policy Committee. In that letter, the CAC listed the five priority issues where more focused resources and support needs to be placed by the commissioners and regional administrators. Three of the five issues mentioned in the letter are issues that the Sound School and its collaborating partners could be active in the process of gathering the data from the New Haven Harbor watershed and central Long Island Sound. This would help to establish and maintain an accurate and comprehensive database of the living and non-living factors that are present in this region of the Long Island Sound.

Also, in conversations with many researchers and policy makers that are directly involved with monitoring the water quality of the Long Island Sound and implementing the mandates of the Long Island Sound Study and the CCMP, the need to develop a solid database of information about the New Haven Harbor and central Long Island Sound has been reiterated. There is a need to begin collecting data and then to make the research a continuing and ongoing process. Continuous monitoring of water quality, ongoing inventories of the organisms that inhabit the area or migrate in and out of it, monitoring of pollutants in the water and sediments and determining the changes to the ecology of the area are the most basic tasks that need to be accomplished. The information is needed to enable all the local communities and regional planning agencies to develop watershed management plans and to accurately assess the effectiveness of the plans.