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United States Environmental Protection Agency
Region 1: New England
  Serving Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont & 10 Tribal Nations
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What Makes Long Island Sound Special?


Photo of a river flowing into the Sound

Photo of an  egret in a marshPhoto of a marsh and beach

An aerial photo of the SoundPhoto of a clammer

 
Related Information
Long Island Sound Study
 
Long Island Sound is an estuary, a place where salt water from the ocean mixes with fresh water from rivers and the land. Long Island Sound is unique in that it has two connections to the sea – The Race to the east and the East River to the West – and several major rivers.

The Sound provides feeding, breeding, nesting and nursery areas for a diversity of plant and animal life, and contributes an estimated $5.5 billion per year to the regional economy from boating, commercial and sport fishing, swimming, and sight-seeing.

More than 8 million people live in the Long Island Sound watershed, and the associated development has increased some types of pollution, altered land surfaces, reduced open spaces, and restricted access to the Sound.

People throughout New England and New York all have a stake in Long Island Sound. The entire coastline of Connecticut and part of New York sit on Long Island Sound. Eighty percent of the fresh water entering the Sound comes from rivers that drain states as far north as Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont.

Long Island Sound is so important that in 1987 was designated as a National Estuary. The Sound and its resources need you – who live on the Sound, who live upstream away from the Sound, and who visit – to help protect the Sound from pollution. To learn more about estuaries, check out: Learn About Estuaries

What can I find on this Site?

On this website you can learn about what Long Island Sound is and where to find information about the vast array of environmental issues that impact the Sound. You find information and links to understand issues that impact the waters, land and air in the State of Connecticut and the waters of Long Island Sound.

To learn more about LIS and the programs to protect and restore it one should visit the Long Island Sound Study website:

  



Serving Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, & 10 Tribal Nations

 
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