Projects

To support a continuing study about assessing the extent and characteristics of macroalgal blooms in New Haven Harbor and the impacts such blooms have on benthic communities.

To support the surveying of the Quinnipiac River for polyaromatic hydrocarbons and phthalate plasticizers in an effort to characterize contamination from industrial and municipal sources.

To support the review of Cytec's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) water permit for discharges into the Quinnipiac River and see if there have been any violations of their permit during this year or during the past 5 years.

To support investigation of the various stresses that may be contributing to the extensive loss of vegetation in the Quinnipiac tidal marshes and begin to gather data on the relative importance of sub-surface compaction, decompositon in causing elevation loss in this ecosystem.

To offer a short course in river processes to local members of conservation/inland wetland commissions and environmrntal activists.  The course will cover the basic hydrologic, geomorphic, chemical and biological processes that govern stream exosystems, and how they are perturbed by human activities.  Participants will receive the scientific tools that they need in order to understand and critically evaluate environemntal data on the Q River.

To support funding for two aspects of the Quinnipiac River Conservation and Development corridor Project. RPG will develop an inter-municipal agreement between the three lower river communities that will include land-use guidelines and a tax sharing agreement.