State Representative Lonnie Reed (D-Branford) testified before the Commerce Committee today on SB 220, An Act Concerning Navigation, Coastal Access and Clean Marinas. Rep. Reed said the bill represents a common sense strategy designed to support and grow marina businesses and create more maritime jobs while also incentivizing the safe disposal of paints, cleaning products, oils, waxes, fuels and other pollutants that too often wind up in Long Island Sound.

“This bill provides smart, cooperative links between existing innovative programs and funding sources,” said Rep. Reed. “The Clean Marinas program helps Marina operators learn how to run their businesses in the most environmentally responsible way possible and to earn a Clean Marina Certification for doing so. And the legislature, in its wisdom, has established a fund in the Department of Transportation that accepts applications for dredging small harbors that have become silted in and now pose a hazard to navigation. This bill proposes an innovative synergy between those two programs.”

The bill also includes addressing small marina owners interested in the potential of dredging their areas blocked by silted in anchorages that has forced boat owners to take their vessels elsewhere, including Rhode Island.

The bill represents one of many ideas being shared in the bi-State, bi-partisan Long Island Sound Caucus created jointly with New York. The caucus been meeting on both sides of the Sound to share problems and experiences and discuss ways to pursue mutual goals of clean beaches, clean water, robust recreational and commercial fishing and boating – all of the things that contribute to an environmentally safe and economically vibrant Long Island Sound.

Dredging Today Staff, February 29, 2012