Report: 39% of Westchester residents rate Long Island Sound water quality as 'excellent' or 'good'
The report was done by the Long Island Sound Partnership and Connecticut Sea Grant. It was done during summer 2024 but was released this past August.
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Less than 40% of Westchester residents say the water quality of the Long Island Sound is "good" or "excellent," according to a new report.
"I happen to think it's pretty clean," says New Rochelle resident Tim Cinnante.
"It's been very dirty," says Yonkers resident Peter Parashis.
The report was done by the Long Island Sound Partnership and Connecticut Sea Grant. It was done during summer 2024 but was released this past August.
The report shows only 39% of Westchester residents who were surveyed would rate the sound's water quality as "excellent" or "good."
"If the same survey was given 40 years ago, I think we would have drastically different results. I think that far fewer people would support that conclusion," says director of Healthy Waters and Lands at Save the Sound Peter Linderoth.
A total of 45% rated it as "fair" or "poor," and 16% were "unsure."
Some people agree with the findings.
"The water always looks clean and they fish over here. You can see the fish from the standing above the water," says Cinnante.
But some fishermen say they have major concerns and say it's been harder to catch fish.
"I have fishermen that go on boats that don't even want to go out now, because the water hasn't been good," says Parashis. "Too much of the stuff from the streets are being washed into it, just like a sewer."
Experts say although there have been improvements over the last 40 years to the deeper waters, more still needs to be done, especially in bays and harbors.
"Diverting rainwater away from hardened surfaces so that it can infiltrate into the ground and be treated before it makes its way to local water bodies," says Linderoth.
Save the Sound says its report card will come out next summer.
