Friday, April 07, 2006

A Proposal to Increase Funding for the Sound Cleanup Gains in the Connecticut Legislature

Good news from the Connecticut Legislature regarding money for the Long Island Sound cleanup. Terry Backer, the Soundkeeper and a legislator from Stratford, just told me that the House Finance, Revenue and Bonding committee increased the amount of money in the Clean Water Fund by $30 million, from $20 million to $50 million.

It will now go to the floor for a vote. Terry says the budget is in flux all the time and it’s possible the number will still change. Calls, letters and e-mails to Connecticut representatives can only help, he says.

“I would do it very soon,” he says.

Readers will remember that for the last few years the Connecticut Legislature has been taking money out of the fund. Save the Sound/Connecticut Fund for the Environment estimated that if the oney wasn’t restored, the cleanup of the Sound would be pushed back from 2014 to 2039.

There's plenty of background information scattered through Sphere. Here and here., for example, but lots of other places over the last five or six months of posts.

1 Comments:

Blogger Sam said...

I hope my old home state does something about it.

I just hunted around the web for "phosphate cycle" and was also amazed that this pollutant could be a limiting pollutant in the process of eutrophication, since the bacteria and algae require organic phosphates for DNA, RBA, and all that good stuff.

True, phosphates have been reduced or eliminated in most detergents but is still present in fertilizers and other packaged products.

Still, many scientists will admit the phoshate cycle is poorly understood in comparison to the nitrogen cycle, which includes fairly common counpounds like ammonia, nitrates, and related ions.

My limited (I'm an air quality guy) understanding is that in the presence of low oxygen and high nitrogen, along with higher temperatures and slight changes in pH, microbial activity could liberate inorganic phosphorus by adding oxygen, thus making is possible for cell growth.

Uh-oh!

11:07 PM  

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