HARTFORD – U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and U.S. Representatives John Larson (CT-1), Joe Courtney (CT-2), Rosa DeLauro (CT-3), Jim Himes (CT-4), and Elizabeth Esty (CT-5) applauded the nearly $1.3 million in federal Long Island Sound Futures Fund grants to protect Long Island Sound and the waterways that feed it. The grants will fund 18 Connecticut-based projects to improve water quality and restore wildlife and marine habitat in the Sound as well as two upstream projects in New England to support nitrogen reduction in Long Island Sound.

“Connecticut residents and businesses depend on a clean Long Island Sound, and this $1.3 million in funding will go a long way in helping us preserve it,” said the delegation. “We’re excited to see these grants help protect the Sound and ultimately inject money right back into the local economy along Connecticut’s shoreline.”

The Long Island Sound Futures Fund grants will reach more than 870,000 residents through environmental and conservation education programs. Water quality improvement projects will treat 439,000 gallons of water runoff, reducing more than 15,600 pounds of nitrogen, and collecting 2,800 pounds of floating trash. The grants will be matched by $1.1 million from the grantees resulting in $2.45 million in funding for on-the-ground conservation in Connecticut and New England.

Long Island Sound spans more than 1,300 square miles of coastline that are home to hundreds of diverse wildlife species, and is a proven economic driver, generating over $17 billion annually in tourism, fishing, shellfishing, and boating for the state.