STAMFORD, Conn. (WCBS 880) — A device described as an over-sized pool filter is now is the first step in cleaning up the plastic and other pollutants in the Long Island Sound.
As WCBS 880’s Joe Avellar reports, the Long Island Sound is a mess. Anyone who sees it, fishes in it or sails on it sees trash, oil, balloons and a whole lot more.
Now, a marina trash skimmer machine in Stamford has begun the process of cleaning up the waters.
“What we are doing is putting this trash skimmer where the trash is coming into the sound, through the waterways, through the coast, through the coastal areas and that could have a significant impact,” said Leigh Shemitz, the president of SoundWaters – which created the machinery.
The non-profit environmental, educational organization in Stamford has already picked up a tremendous amount of junk and pollutants from Long Island’s waters, but Shemitz notes one machine won't be enough.
She says their hope is that marinas all along the sound will soon have the trash skimmers to clean up all pollutants.
“Not that the marinas are such a mess, it's that the marinas are the first stop of all the waterways coming down and a great way to catch these pollutants,” Shemitz notes.
They are asking the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for a grant that would put a dozen more trash skimmers along the Long Island Sound.