Save the Sound released its 2026 Long Island Sound Report Card, showing that water quality improved or remained stable across all five open-water regions of the Sound.
asserted
quality → release → Sound
The biennial report, based on 2025 monitoring data and detailed on Save the Sound's own Report Card project page, grades the open Sound using four water quality indicators and 62 bay segments across 46 bays and harbours using five.
asserted
report → base → five
The standout finding indicated the historically worst-performing region, the Western Narrows near New York City.
asserted
finding → indicate → City
They posted their first passing grade in nearly two decades.
asserted
They → post → decades
Here's how each region fared, and what's driving the improvement.
asserted
what → fare → improvement
Western Narrows earns its first passing grade since 2008
The Western Narrows, which includes the waters around New York City, received a D grade in the 2026 report, Fox Weather reports, marking the biggest improvement of any region and the first time it has received a passing grade since Save the Sound began grading the area in 2008.
asserted
Sound → earn → 2008
Every prior year, the Western Narrows had received an F.
asserted
Narrows → receive → F.
Save the Sound's own project page notes the organisation has long identified high nitrogen and nutrient levels as the biggest overall problem affecting the Sound's health, contributing to dead zones, algae blooms and marsh damage, particularly in this densely populated western stretch of the estuary.
asserted
organisation → note → estuary
How the other open-water regions of the Sound fared
Beyond the Western Narrows, every other open-water region either improved or held steady.
asserted
region → fare → Narrows
According to CT Mirror, the Western Basin improved from an A- to an A, and the Central Basin improved from an A to an A+.
uncertain
Basin → accord → A+
The Eastern Basin maintained its A+ grade, while the Eastern Narrows remained at a B.
asserted
Narrows → maintain → B.
Altogether, the Western, Central and Eastern basins all received A grades in 2026.
asserted
basins → receive → 2026
These open-water grades are based on four indicators, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll a, water clarity, and dissolved organic carbon.
asserted
grades → base → indicators
Meanwhile the bay grades draw on five indicators, including dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll a, water clarity, temperature, and the presence of seaweed.
asserted
grades → draw → seaweed
What's behind Long Island Sound's continued improvement
Save the Sound attributed the gains largely to billions of dollars in wastewater and infrastructure upgrades across Connecticut and New York, alongside continued reductions in the nitrogen entering the Sound.
asserted
Sound → continue → Sound
Excess nitrogen fuels algae blooms and contributes to low-oxygen conditions that can harm or kill fish and other aquatic life, so cutting nitrogen inputs has remained a central focus of the region's water quality efforts.
asserted
cutting → fuel → efforts
Save the Sound's Unified Water Study has supported this work by establishing standardised monitoring procedures, protocols and equipment across 62 of the Sound's bays and harbours, allowing data collected by different organisations to be reliably compared region-wide.
asserted
data → support → organisations
Why Save the Sound warns the gains remain fragile
asserted
gains → warn → ?
Despite the improving picture, Save the Sound via Fox Weather cautioned that this progress could still be undone.
uncertain
progress → improve → Weather
The organisation pointed to climate change, rising water temperatures and worsening stormwater runoff as ongoing threats to the Sound's recovery.
asserted
organisation → point → recovery
Save the Sound said continued reductions in nitrogen pollution, along with sustained investment in wastewater and stormwater infrastructure, will be essential to maintaining the results achieved so far.
asserted
reductions → say → results
The Aporia
