By Representative Renee LaMark Muir
Published in CTInsider.com on August 14, 2026

 

It’s hard to imagine now, but the Connecticut River was once dismissed as the “world’s most beautifully landscaped cesspool”. Decades of strong environmental protections, sustained investment, and cooperation transformed it into one of New England’s greatest environmental success stories. It was designated an American Heritage River. Bald eagles returned, native fish populations rebounded, and water quality dramatically improved.

That history proves what determined public action can accomplish. It also raises an urgent question: Are we prepared to protect the progress we worked so hard to achieve?

Connecticut’s waterways are among our state’s greatest shared assets. The Connecticut River, Long Island Sound, and our lakes, reservoirs, wetlands, and coastal estuaries shape our communities. They support fishing, tourism, boating, agriculture, drinking water, wildlife habitats, and property values. They generate more than $9 billion in economic activity and help define what makes Connecticut home.

But aging infrastructure, pollution, invasive aquatic species, and climate change causing stronger storms and rising temperatures are converging into a statewide crisis.

This summer, heavy storms triggered combined wastewater overflows from outdated systems in Massachusetts that released tens of millions of gallons of sewage and stormwater into the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound. Those contaminants moved downstream into Connecticut and contributed to swimming advisories during the height of summer.

Two aggressively invasive aquatic plants – Hydrilla and water chestnut – are spreading rapidly, crowding out native plants, degrading fish habitat, and threatening boating and fishing. Flooding and erosion are damaging roads, homes, businesses, wetlands, and shorelines.

These are not future threats. They are unfolding now.

And unlike Las Vegas, what happens upstream does not stay upstream. Water ignores municipal boundaries, legislative districts, and political parties. Pollution in one community can become a public health, environmental, and economic problem for other communities.

Because the Connecticut River connects our towns, protecting it must be a shared effort. Connecticut will continue working with upstream states and the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to uphold clean-water protections, because investments made upstream benefit every community downstream. But with federal environmental protection funding cut, EPA enforcement increasingly narrowed, and federal courts reshaping the scope of environmental authority, we must strengthen our own ability to protect the Connecticut River, lakes, and coastline we all depend on.

Connecticut must lead with a coordinated, fully funded statewide water strategy.

The plan should be clear and practical:

• Modernize wastewater and sewer systems. Communities cannot protect clean water with infrastructure built for another century.
• Expand green stormwater systems, wetlands, and riverbank buffers. Natural filtration reduces pollution while absorbing floodwaters.
• Fund rapid response to Hydrilla, water chestnut, and other invasive aquatic plants. Every year of delay makes them harder and more expensive to eradicate.
• Increase monitoring, boat inspections, and washing stations. Preventing an invasive species infestation costs far less than eradicating one.
• Protect shorelines, wetlands, and floodplains. They are natural defenses for homes, businesses, roads, and municipal budgets.
• Invest in science and local conservation partnerships. Effective solutions depend on accurate data and the knowledge of communities closest to the water.

Improvements do cost money. But inaction already carries a price: flood damage, emergency repairs, closed beaches, declining fisheries, degradation of wildlife habitat, damaged property, lost tourism, and massive infestations of invasive aquatic plants.

The real question is not whether Connecticut can afford to protect its water. It is whether we can afford to keep postponing the work.

This effort should not belong to one party, one agency, or one region. Municipal leaders, conservation groups, scientists, utilities, farmers, anglers, boaters, businesses, and residents all have a role. Our waters connect us, and protecting them can unite us.

Connecticut has done this before. The recovery of the Connecticut River shows what happens when people look beyond immediate costs and commit to lasting results. It also shows that environmental protection and economic strength are not competing goals. Clean water supports public health, local business, tourism, property values, and resilient communities.

We are approaching another defining moment. The choices we make over the next few years will determine whether future generations inherit a cleaner river, healthier lakes, restored wetlands, vibrant wildlife, and stronger communities or spend decades trying to recover what we allowed to decline.

This is our river, our lakes, our shoreline, and our communities. Protecting them is not someone else’s responsibility. It is ours.

And this is the moment to come together and act.

State Representative Renee LaMark Muir represents the 36th District, which covers four towns on the banks of the lower Connecticut River, near the mouth of Long Island Sound.