{"id":467,"date":"2025-06-01T18:52:58","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T22:52:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/?p=467"},"modified":"2025-07-02T12:28:51","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T16:28:51","slug":"pollution-hurts-delicate-life-cycles-of-fish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/2025\/06\/01\/pollution-hurts-delicate-life-cycles-of-fish\/","title":{"rendered":"Pollution Hurts Delicate Life Cycles of Fish"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

By Desirae Sin
UConn Journalism<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Freshwater rivers are vital to the life\u00adcy\u00adcle of many fish species, but pol\u00adlu\u00adtion and over\u00adflows of sewage and waste\u00adwater can hurt these del\u00adi\u00adcate process\u00ades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sewer over\u00adflows enter\u00ading the Connecticut River and its trib\u00adu\u00adtaries can lead to die-offs of sev\u00ader\u00adal valu\u00adable migra\u00adto\u00adry fish species, includ\u00ading the American shad, Connecticut\u2019s offi\u00adcial fish, and sev\u00ader\u00adal other species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shad spend much of their lives in the ocean, return\u00ading to rivers to spawn. Once hatch\u00adlings in the Connecticut River and its trib\u00adu\u00adtaries mature, they make their way to the Atlantic Ocean. The next sea\u00adson, they return to the rivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Connecticut River Conservancy (CRC), a non-prof\u00adit that mon\u00adi\u00adtors the full length of the Connecticut River in four states, advo\u00adcates for clean water and edu\u00adcates res\u00adi\u00addents about the river ecosys\u00adtem. The CRC is based in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Its river stew\u00adard for Connecticut, Rhea Drozdenko, said that migra\u00adto\u00adry fish are a valu\u00adable part of the river\u2019s health. These include the sea lam\u00adprey, shad, river her\u00adring, and American eel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These fish spend part of their life in the Connecticut River and then they spend part of their life out in the Long Island Sound or in the Atlantic Ocean,\u201d Drozdenko said. \u201cThose fish are real\u00adly impor\u00adtant to our Connecticut River sys\u00adtem because they bring back all these real\u00adly impor\u00adtant ocean nutri\u00adents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the work by the Metropolitan District Comission to improve the qual\u00adi\u00adty of waste\u00adwater for Hartford res\u00adi\u00addents, com\u00adbined sewer over\u00adflows still occur and can have severe envi\u00adron\u00admen\u00adtal impacts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Combined sewer over\u00adflows (CSOs), car\u00adry\u00ading untreat\u00aded human waste, other house\u00adhold waste, and runoff from roads, are dis\u00adcharged into trib\u00adu\u00adtaries like the Park River, which then join the Connecticut River. Although sewage treate\u00adment removes a lot of the nitro\u00adgen, the over\u00adflows con\u00adtain nitro\u00adgen and phos\u00adpho\u00adrus and can cause algae blooms. Algae feed off nutri\u00adents and can grow in great num\u00adbers. Eventually the algae must die, and when it does, the process of decom\u00adpo\u00adsi\u00adtion draws out oxy\u00adgen from the water, leav\u00ading lit\u00adtle for other wildlife like native fish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection maps pub\u00adlic lakes, ponds and areas where fish\u00ading is allowed. Local fish\u00ader\u00admen may use these pub\u00adlic bod\u00adies of water for recre\u00adation\u00adal pur\u00adpos\u00ades, but these water bod\u00adies may be trib\u00adu\u00adtaries, in which CSOs enter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSewage con\u00adtains a lot of nutri\u00adents. We eat nutri\u00adents and we get rid of them, nutri\u00adents like nitro\u00adgen and phos\u00adpho\u00adrus. Nitrogen and phos\u00adpho\u00adrus are real\u00adly impor\u00adtant for the envi\u00adron\u00admen\u00adtal life cycle, all plants need it. However, when it\u2019s exces\u00adsive, when there\u2019s too much, it real\u00adly caus\u00ades prob\u00adlems,\u201d Drozdenko said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou might not think that sewage in the water can even\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly [lead to fish kills]. After all, these dif\u00adfer\u00adent steps lead to fish kills, but it can. It\u2019s just all of these down\u00adstream effects,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CRC tests water qual\u00adi\u00adty week\u00adly from June through August each year to give res\u00adi\u00addents a sense of whether the water is safe for swim\u00adming and boat\u00ading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although raw sewage can cause fish deaths, con\u00adt\u00ada\u00adm\u00adi\u00adnants with\u00adin the water can lead to con\u00adt\u00ada\u00adm\u00adi\u00adnat\u00aded food and infec\u00adtions for humans. Biomagnification is the process in which con\u00adt\u00ada\u00adm\u00adi\u00adnants can com\u00adpound them\u00adselves in the food chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A com\u00admon exam\u00adple of this phe\u00adnom\u00ade\u00adnon is mer\u00adcury in cer\u00adtain ocean fish. Smaller organ\u00adisms can absorb mer\u00adcury through the water and other sed\u00adi\u00adments, when those organ\u00adisms are eaten, and then those ones are also eaten by big\u00adger fish, the mer\u00adcury remains and becomes more con\u00adcen\u00adtrat\u00aded down the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time the food chain reach\u00ades some species humans eat \u2014 like salmon or tuna \u2014 the mer\u00adcury reach\u00ades high\u00ader, poten\u00adtial\u00adly dan\u00adger\u00adous lev\u00adels. This same con\u00adcept can be applied to sev\u00ader\u00adal con\u00adt\u00ada\u00adm\u00adi\u00adnants with\u00adin sewage from CSOs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Map of fish\u00ading areas: https:\/\/experience.arcgis.com\/experience\/e02d8026889042c7aa2d71be67a72b9c<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

TOP IMAGE: American shad swim upriv\u00ader every spring to spawn in the Connecticut River. Photo cour\u00adtesy of Bill Byrne\/ Massachusetts Wildlife<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Desirae SinUConn Journalism Freshwater rivers are vital to the life\u00adcy\u00adcle of many fish species, but pol\u00adlu\u00adtion and over\u00adflows of sewage and waste\u00adwater can hurt these del\u00adi\u00adcate process\u00ades. Sewer over\u00adflows enter\u00ading the Connecticut River and its trib\u00adu\u00adtaries can lead to die-offs of sev\u00ader\u00adal valu\u00adable migra\u00adto\u00adry fish species, includ\u00ading the American shad, Connecticut\u2019s offi\u00adcial fish, and\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":932,"featured_media":468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","tag-environment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/files\/2025\/05\/American-Shad-in-CT-River-by-Bill-Byrne-MassWildlife.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/932"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1146,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467\/revisions\/1146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/hartford-north-end-chronic-flooding-sewage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}