New report reveals grades for water quality at beaches on Long Island Sound
In Western Connecticut, five beaches got top honors, earning an A+: Bell Island Beach, Calf Pasture Beach and Rowayton Beach in Norwalk; Seabright Beach in Bridgeport; and Silver Sands State Park in Milford.
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The unofficial kickoff to summer is just a few days away, which means beaches will soon be packed.
And just in time, the regional nonprofit Save the Sound is out with its 2025 Long Island Sound Beach Report, which grades the water quality at each of the over 200 beaches on the Sound’s shoreline. The marks show how healthy the water is for people to swim in.
In Western Connecticut, five beaches got top honors, earning an A+: Bell Island Beach, Calf Pasture Beach and Rowayton Beach in Norwalk; Seabright Beach in Bridgeport; and Silver Sands State Park in Milford.
While no beach in the state received an F, two in our area came close. Byram Park Beach in Greenwich and Sasco Beach in Fairfield both received a D-. Weed Beach in Darien was also one of the lowest with a C-.
The grades in the biennial report are based on data from the last three years. Save the Sound uses water samples collected by local health departments throughout the swimming season and combines it with rainfall data.
“We’ve got some greats news in the beach report. 72% of the beaches along the whole shoreline received an A or B,” stated Peter Linderoth, director of healthy waters and lands for Save the Sound. “But if you're doing the math, that mean 28% of beaches got a C or below and certainly that leaves some room for improvement.”
Linderoth unveiled the results Tuesday during a news conference at Lighthouse Point Park in New Haven, which received a B- in the report.
“We evaluate dry and wet weather conditions in respect to how healthy the water is for swimming,” Linderoth explained.
This year's report saw grades drop overall from the last report two years ago when 78% of beaches earned A’s and B’s. Linderoth said the decrease is directly related to rain.
“Wet weather brings polluted stormwater runoff to our local waterways and can really impact beach water quality, and we saw a big uptick in wet weather failure rates,” Linderoth said. “Really when we think about it, there's more intense and frequent rainstorms coming through the region. Climate change is very real, and it's important that we adapt, and we encourage our local officials, public works departments and health departments to adapt to those more frequent and intense rainstorms and try to reduce the amount of polluted water making its way to Long Island Sound.”
The report said other reasons for contaminated water could be sewer infrastructure, septic systems and animal waste. Beaches were closed or under advisories for nearly 10% of possible swimming days during the 2023 and 2024 seasons, according to the report.
Linderoth said the report is meant to be a tool to identify potential problem areas and spark conversations between residents, local officials and interested organizations about solutions that will improve and maintain water quality at beaches for the future. He said steps taken in the next five years will affect the next fifty.
To see the water quality grades for all 204 monitored beaches, click here.
