Advocacy: Connecticut Audubon calls on the General Assembly to pass the Blue Plan

Sunrise over Long Island Sound. Photo © Frank Mantlik.

January 22, 2021 — The Connecticut Audubon Society submitted testimony today to the General Assembly’s Environment Committee urging the passage of the Long Island Sound Blue Plan.

The planning document was complete in 2019 and has been awaiting action in Hartford. Connecticut Audubon testified in favor of it last year.

In 2019, passage of the Blue Plan a key recommendation in the annual Connecticut State of the Birds report, “An Improved Long Island Sound Faces Unpredictable Change.”

In that State of the Birds report, Judy Benson of Connecticut Sea Grant wrote that the Blue Plan “will serve as a tool to foster good decisions about proposed developments, including those that could impact seabirds and shorebirds.

“One of the most valuable portions of the Blue Plan’s bird section is a map that defines Ecologically Significant Areas. It identifies several near-shore sections from the western to the central Sound, and a large area across the waterway between the eastern Connecticut coast and the North Fork of Long Island as those that are the most important for vulnerable species such as Common, Least, and Roseate Tern, Saltmarsh Sparrow, and American Oystercatcher.”

What follows is the 2021 testimony of Executive Director Patrick Comins on behalf of Connecticut Audubon:

The Blue Plan identifies large areas of the Sound that are important to coastal birds such as these American Oystercatchers.

January 22, 2021
The Connecticut Audubon Society thanks the Committee and the sponsors of the Resolution Approving the Long Island Sound Blue Plan for proposing this important resolution and for the opportunity to express our strong support.

The Connecticut Audubon Society strongly supports the Environment Committee’s Resolution Approving the Long Island Sound Blue Plan. The Blue Plan, a draft of which was completed in 2019, is a marine spatial planning effort that gathered science-based and stakeholder/expert-vetted information to map the most important locations for special ecological features and human uses of Long Island Sound. The effort was overseen by an advisory committee composed of state, municipal, industry and non-profit representatives. For more information on this committee, please see: (https://www.ct.gov/deep/cwp/view.asp?a=2705&pm=1&Q=574830&deepNav_GID=1635).

The plan provides a wealth of information for proponents, opponents, regulators, and other interested parties of future projects on Long Island Sound. By compiling this information into a single source it will greatly aid in planning for future uses of the Sound. This will allow key areas to be recognized and taken into account in order to make better, timelier and more efficient decisions now and in the future.

The Blue Plan is not a new regulatory process. The Blue Plan is a vehicle to more quickly identify key resources for review within existing regulatory processes, such as the Connecticut Siting Council or Coastal Zone Management Act and other permitting activities. Permit review under these programs will undergo the same general processes, but will now have access to the information and standards contained in the Blue Plan. There will not be an additional Blue Plan permit required.

Through the Blue Plan process, a tremendous amount of information has been compiled on the locations important ecological features and human uses on Long Island Sound. The Connecticut Audubon Society was grateful to have had an opportunity to contribute substantial information on the areas of ecological importance to this process and a wide variety of the top experts on the ecology of Long Island Sound were also engaged. This information in the plan is presented and made broadly available through the Blue Plan documents, including the Long Island Sound Resource and Use Inventory and Online Map viewer. Using these tools stakeholders, project proponents and opponents, and permitting authorities will all have access to the same information to evaluate and substantiate more objective and well-informed decisions.

Please consider approval of this Resolution Approving the Long Island Sound Blue Plan, which will serve as an important planning tool for the future of Long Island Sound. Thank you very much for your consideration.

Respectfully submitted,

Patrick M. Comins
Executive Director