00A00820

Description:
The purpose of this agreement is to provide financial assistance to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to implement its own project to support the Long Island Sound Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan for the restoration and protection of Long Island Sound and the environment. These activities are intended to support the recipient's goal to restore and de-list areas of concern, restore and protect habitat connectivity, increase public access to beaches and waterways, maximize acres of habitat restored and river corridors with improved health, protect and restore coastal wetlands, enhance the public's awareness and understanding of the sound, implement and coordinate habitat restoration, study of nitrogen loading from onsite wastewater treatment systems, develop dynamic habitat-based ecological decision support tools, characterize deep-water habitats, and conduct the technical integration of nitrogen modeling in embayments.

Activities:
Specific activities include education and outreach to communities, collection and analysis of water quality monitoring data (including coastal acidification parameters), coordination of habitat restoration, study of onsite wastewater treatment systems, develop dynamic habitat-based ecological decision support tools, characterize deep-water habitats, update databases, and conduct the technical integration of nitrogen modeling in embayments.

Subrecipient:
Subawards include the University of Connecticut Laboratory for Plankton and Community Sampling and Analyses and Coastal Acidification Monitoring; University of Connecticut and Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory for seafloor mapping and characterizing deep-water habitats; University of Connecticut's Center for Land Use Education and Research for land cover datasets and software updates to ensure the continuity of the data.

Outcomes:
The anticipated deliverables will be progress and final reports, quality assurance project plans (QAPPs), and technical reports. Expected outcomes include improved management and implementation of comprehensive conservation and management plan goals and objectives, improved water quality, living resources habitat, and public safety, reduced contaminant and nutrient loads, improved water quality assessment to guide management activities and improve ecosystem health, maps, and data products.

Direct beneficiaries of this program include the general population in the Connecticut and New York portion of the watershed and its surrounding areas, schools, universities, and other institutions of learning, environmental managers, and policymakers.

Connecticut Department Of Energy & Environmental Protection

66.437 - Long Island Sound Program

EPA Region 1: Boston [EPA - RO]

New Haven, Connecticut United States

County-Wide

EPA-CEP-01

Amendment Since initial award the End Date has been extended from 09/30/24 to 09/30/25.