Full Breakdown
Long Island Sound Shows Broad Water-Quality Gains Amid Ongoing Bay Challenges
By Drooid · · How we work
Core Findings of the 2026 Report Card
Save the Sound released its biennial 2026 Long Island Sound Report Card using 2025 water-sample data. The three open-water basins—Western, Central and Eastern—earned “A” grades; the Eastern Narrows received a “B.” The Western Narrows improved from an “F” in every previous report (since 2008) to a “D,” its first passing grade. Across all open waters, 98 % scored a “B” or better. In the 62 monitored bay and harbor segments, 56 % received “A” or “B” grades, while 44 % earned “C,” “D,” or “F.”
Background: Decades of Wastewater Investment
State and federal spending on wastewater treatment and storm-water infrastructure has driven the improvements. Connecticut has invested roughly $1.2 billion over the past 20 years to address combined-sewer overflows, and the EPA’s Long Island Sound Program received $40 million in the most recent fiscal year, up from $1 million a decade earlier. DEEP cites the Clean Water Fund and the General Permit for Nitrogen Discharges as key mechanisms for reducing nutrient pollution.
Data & Statistics
- Open-water grades: Western, Central, Eastern – “A”; Eastern Narrows – “B”; Western Narrows – “D.”
- 98 % of sampled open-water sites scored “B” or better.
- Bay and harbor performance: 56 % “A/B,” 44 % “C/D/F.”
- Funding: $1.2 billion Connecticut investment (20 years); $40 million EPA Sound Program (latest).
Official Statements & Responses
U.S. Representative Jim Himes (D-4th District) emphasized the bipartisan nature of the effort, noting that “the [Trump] administration has taken a particularly aggressive stance in certain areas, like wind,” while praising recent water-quality gains.
On-the-Ground Reports
Open-water grades have risen, but several bays and harbors have slipped. Middle Hempstead Harbor fell from a “D” to an “F,” and Northport Harbor dropped to a “D” after a previous “C.” Director Peter Linderoth identified “fertilizer usage, stormwater runoff, a big vector of pollution to our bays and harbors, also wastewater treatment plant infrastructure” as primary stressors. Friends of the Bay’s Christine Suter cautioned that a half-point decline “isn’t necessarily a bad thing,” highlighting community actions such as oyster-shell seeding and clam releases.
Conflicting Reports & Gaps
The New York Post described the Western Basin improving from an “A-” to an “A,” while Newsday noted it simply as an “A.” Both agree on the Western Narrows’ first passing “D” grade since 2008. No source provided a unified explanation for the grade variations among basins, leaving a minor reporting gap.
Verbatim Quotes
- “It’s a remarkable success story in that the investments paid dividends, the water quality is improving,” — Peter Linderoth, Save the Sound
- “Rising water temperatures have a range of potentially damaging impacts on the marine environment, including elevating the risk for hypoxia, which is low levels of oxygen in the water,” — Elena Colón, sound laboratory manager
What’s Next
Save the Sound warns that climate-change-driven temperature rises could reverse recent gains by increasing hypoxia risk. Continued reductions in nitrogen loading, expanded wastewater upgrades, and mitigation of storm-water runoff are identified as essential to sustaining and extending the current improvements across both open waters and vulnerable bays.