TheDay.com - Solutions Are Shared By Government And By Each Of Us: "Solutions Are Shared By Government And By Each Of Us
By Gregory N. Stone
Published on 7/1/2007
On a sparkling summer day, Long Island Sound still manages to look as pristine and magical as it always has despite the bustle of human activity on and around it. It is little wonder so many have chosen to settle along its shores despite the risk of Atlantic storms and the burden of high property taxes.
But taxes and high insurance rates are not the only costs of the settlements adjacent to the Sound, more than 9 million people strong. The burden of shoreline development has taken an alarming toll on the health of the Sound and upon its ability to support marine life, the very features of the estuary that continue to attract new development.
Several of the symptoms of the illness have become routine: Beach and shellfish bed closings. But a much larger and more startling event 20 years ago captured the attention of government environmental agencies and policy makers. Summers always brought stress to the body of water, but in the summer of 1987, oxygen levels dropped to deadly levels in a wide swath across the western half of the Sound, causing extraordinary fish and lobster kills."
