Current Cases

 

Petitioning the EPA for an Updated Nitrogen Plan

CFE/Save the Sound filed a petition with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in February 2015, requesting a new or revised legally-enforceable plan to identify and reduce the biggest remaining sources of nitrogen pollution harming Long Island Sound. Nitrogen is the primary driver of hypoxia, a low-oxygen condition that endangers aquatic life, and also fuels marsh loss and toxic algae blooms.

 

The current nitrogen reduction plan for the Sound was developed in 2000. While advanced for its time, modeling at the time predicted—and monitoring now confirms—that it did not set nitrogen input levels low enough to meet water quality standards under the Clean Water Act. The petition asks the EPA to take the following actions:

• Make a commitment with the five states that drain to Long Island Sound (Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire) by June 2015 to develop an updated nitrogen Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) by June 15, 2016 that ensures Long Island Sound’s water quality will meet legal standards.

• Establish an implementation and accountability program for those watershed states, also by June 15, 2016.

• Immediately use its existing authorities to slash nitrogen from urban stormwater, broken and failing sewer pipes, septic systems and cesspools, and other local sources of nitrogen.

 

Making Industrial Polluters Pay

We have brought a series of Federal Clean Water Act cases against individual industrial stormwater polluters in Connecticut. These are industrial sites, mostly auto and scrapyards or sand and gravel businesses, where rainwater mixes with chemicals and metals on site and then is discharged without treatement into Connecticut’s rivers and Long Island Sound. In 2009, four of the cases were settled; the fifth was settled only after CFE along with then-Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and the DEP brought a lawsuit in Connecticut Superior Court. Click here for the WNPR story. 

 

Reducing Runoff Pollution from New York into the Sound

In a lawsuit filed by CFE/Save the Sound and other environmental organizations, the New York State Supreme Court ruled that the New York Department of Environmental Conservation must do more to clean up stormwater runoff across the state and that the statewide "general permit" for municipal stormwater was not strong enough. Stormwater pollution is a major contributor to the dead zone and high bacteria levels in Long Island Sound. 

 

The court ordered NY DEC to fix several major flaws in the permit to ensure that all Clean Water Act requirements are met. The court required:

• NY DEC to exercise stricter oversight over municipal stormwater permits;

• Detailed compliance schedules to reduce runoff pollution; and

• Allowing the public to review and comment on municipal plans before they are approved. 

While the decision was reversed by the Appellate Division, New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, has agreed to take the case to review the decision to determine whether it should be overturned.  .

 

Current Status: We are awaiting a decision from the Court of Appeals. Read the NY Supreme Court Decision.

 

CFE Compels Action on Bridgeport Raw Sewage Discharges to the Sound

In 2010, CFE filed a 60-day Notice of Intent to Sue the City of Bridgeport in Federal Court to compel action to stop discharging raw sewage into Long Island Sound and its tributaries each year. As a result of this 60-day notice, Bridgeport agreed to create and implement a Long Term Control Plan to eventually eliminate such discharges. 

 

Current Status: CFE/Save the Sound is currently working with Bridgeport, DEEP, and EPA to shorten the timelines and include enforceable deadlines for the cleanup and to incorporate “Low Impact Development” and “Green Infrastructure” techniques into the cleanup. Read the 60-Day Notice.

 

CFE Spurs DEEP to Require Cleanup of Algae Clogged Rivers

When the DEP (now DEEP) issued permits to sewage treatment plants in the towns of Cheshire and Derby, CFE intervened as legal parties to challenge the permits.  As a result of these interventions, DEEP created a comprehensive phosphorous strategy that requires substantial upgrades for sewage treatment plants.  . 

 

Current Status: We are working with plants to secure the money to upgrade and are ensuring that the phosphorous strategy is fully implemented despite intense pressure from the sewage treatment plants. Read our comments on Water Quality Standards.

 

CFE Fighting to Replace Millstone's Fish-Killing Cooling System

The Millstone Plant, in operation since the early 1970s, withdraws over 2.2 billion gallons of water daily from Long Island Sound, destroying billions of fish and marine life when they are vacuumed into the cooling tower mechanics. 

 

After legally challenging a permit, CFE received a requirement that Millstone perform a study to determine whether a closed cycle cooling system could be installed at its plant and that DEEP revisit its decision after the conclusion of that study. 

 

Current Status: Legal standards are unclear as federal government recently issued regulations on this issue that are being challenged by environmental organizations.