Long Island Sound Coastal Clean-up Volunteers Get Ready

Save the Sound staff have been diligently preparing for the 27th annual International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) that kicks off on Saturday, September 15, 2012.  It's Save the Sound’s tenth year as the Connecticut coordinator for Ocean Conservancy's worldwide cleanup effort and the organization, a project of the Connecticut Fund for the Environment, has planned nearly 40 volunteer events over the next few weeks. Details about upcoming volunteer cleanups are listed on the Save the Sound website's calendar, including events in Stamford, Darien, Norwalk, Westport, Fairfield, Bridgeport, Stratford, Milford, West Haven, New Haven, Branford, Madison, Clinton, Westbrook, Waterford, New London, and Groton.

Long Island Sound contributes more than $9 billion to the regional economy each year.  Last year, Save the Sound brought together 2,665 volunteers, who removed more than 29,000 pounds of trash from 54 miles of coastline.

Long Island Sound is one of the nation’s great estuaries, a place where fresh water from inland waterways flows into salt water from the ocean.  The Sound is a vital economic and recreational resource and provides habitat for diverse animal and plant life.  With 10 percent of the nation’s population living within 50 miles of the Sound, pollution is one of the biggest issues threatening the health of the Sound and the plants and animals that live there.

This year Save the Sound organizers are hoping to get even more people involved, and additional information is available on Facebook, or by emailing Save the Sound's Kierran Broatch at kbroatch@savethesound.org or (203) 787-0646, x113.