While monitoring programs focused on the ecological health of open waters and embayments of the Long Island Sound are well-established, a data gap exists for fecal indicator bacteria (FIB). FIB, which primarily enters waterways from sewage discharge and stormwater runoff, can cause direct and indirect harm to both people and the environment.

The Alley Creek Pathogen Reduction Project and Bergen/Thurston Basin Ribbed Mussel Performance Project, both established in 2023 with the City University of New York (Brooklyn College) and the Science and Resilience Institute at Jamaica Bay, aim to quantify the performance of two nature-based solutions in improving water quality issues resulting

In October of 2023, NYSDEC amended its water quality standards to include criteria for secondary contact recreation in response to an increase of secondary recreational use of the New York Harbor. Following this amendment, IEC introduced the NYSDEC 604b Monitoring Program to assess Class SB and I water bodies impacted by the new criteria.

Program Overview

Since 2021, IEC has been collecting water quality data through the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP)/IEC Harbor Monitoring Program in order to inform water quality classification decisions on behalf of the NJDEP Division of Water Monitoring & Standards.

The lower Passaic River, near the confluence of the Second River, has shown some of the highest geometric mean pathogen levels in the New York-New Jersey Harbor in recent years, based on sample results from the New Jersey Harbor Dischargers Group (NJHDG).

IEC has the capability to perform short-notice inspections, sampling and analyses in response to regional environmental emergencies, concerns, or natural disasters.

Volunteer monitoring (also referred to as participatory science) is an opportunity for community members to participate in scientific investigations, such as ambient monitoring surveys. Volunteers from community groups collect data to better understand their environment and address local issues of concern.

While data and testing are abundant on the open waters of the Long Island Sound, its embayments are much less studied. The Unified Water Study (UWS), coordinated by Connecticut Fund for the Environment-Save the Sound®, aims to fill in many of the data gaps that exist in LIS embayments.

IEC’s staff conducts inspections with sampling at industrial facilities and municipal wastewater treatment plants year-round. These inspections, which are coordinated with state agencies, include effluent sampling and an inspection of processes, equipment, and plant records.

Program Overview

With high population density, extensive coastal development and insufficient tidal exchange with the Atlantic Ocean, the far western Long Island Sound (also known as the Western Narrows) is highly susceptible to degradation from pathogen and nutrient inputs due to stormwater runoff, combined