Issue Position: Environment

Issue Position

Congresswoman DeLauro believes that we have a responsibility to protect our natural resources and ensure that we have a clean, healthy environment. We need to preserve open space, farmland and historic sites as a means of protecting state and local environments as well as to protect the state and local economies.

DeLauro supports increased land acquisition funding; providing grants to states and localities to acquire land and plan for open space; expanded funding for other resource protection efforts; funding for "smart growth" partnerships; and expand funding for ocean and coastal protection.

* Fund Smart Growth Partnerships preserve open spaces and clean up brownfields.

* provide additional federal grants to build, extend and modernize light rail, subway and other mass transit systems.

* promote sustainable, balanced commercial use of our vast system of public lands.

* Promote Livable Communities encourage urban redevelopment, promoting mass transit, or creating incentives for communities to protect farmlands, clean up abandoned industrial sites and safeguard waterways.

* Land Preservation preservation for open spaces and protection for natural treasures.

* support full funding for our National Parks and protect our forests

* stop commercial exploitation of environmentally sensitive land.

* Safeguarding Our Waterways rebuild declining fisheries and require that all fisheries be managed in a sustainable manner to prevent over-fishing.

* clean-up the Long Island Sound and provide a steady stream of funding to safeguard it for future generations.

* protect our watersheds by reducing non-point sources of pollution.

Long Island Sound

The Long Island Sound is critical to our environment and to our economy. It is one of the most complex estuaries in the country and is located in a densely populated area- almost 40 percent of Connecticut's population lives in our State's 36 coastal towns and cities and 20 million people live within 50 miles of the Sound. It also brings in $5.5 billion annually to the regional economy from activities like fishing, recreational boating, swimming, and beach-going.

Congresswoman DeLauro has continuously worked for increased funding for the Long Island Sound and worked for $7 million to be included for the Long Island Sound Restoration Act and the Long Island Sound Stewardship Act for 2010- more than double the 2009 funding amount. This funding will allow the EPA to continue to clean-up the Long Island Sound, as well as preserve areas along the Sound's shorelines with significant ecological, recreational, or educational value.

She is an original cosponsor of the Long Island Sound Improvement Act in the House which reauthorizes appropriations of $40 million for the Long Island Sound. It also authorizes new funding- $125 million in the first year and $250 million per year thereafter- for wastewater infrastructure repair, construction, and upgrades, including stormwater systems, and green infrastructure technology and approaches.

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