New Haven, Conn. – Curt Johnson, executive director of Save the Sound, a bi-state program of Connecticut Fund for the Environment, will lead a community discussion Wednesday evening about disturbing levels of bacteria at Branford beaches identified by the Sound Health Explorer tool.

At the community forum—co-sponsored by Save the Sound, the 3rd District Branford Democratic Town Committee, Short Beach Civic Association, and Friends of the Farm River Estuary—Johnson, town officials, the local health department, and members of the Civic Association will also focus on what is being done now and future steps all parties can take to reduce sewage contamination at our beaches.

The Sound Health Explorer, developed by Save the Sound last year, is an interactive website where concerned citizens can check historical water quality at their local beaches. Each location receives a grade that indicates the level of bacterial contamination. Branford Point Beach and Short Beach (Clark Ave. public beach) are ranked as C or C-, indicating that bacteria contamination exceeds state and EPA safe swimming standards more frequently than at 80 percent of the beaches on the Sound.

"The data tells us a sad story—two of our public beaches in Branford rank in the bottom fifth of their class of beaches all around the Sound when it comes to the frequency that bacterial samples exceeded state and federal guidance for safe swimming," Johnson said. "The good news is that most of these bacterial contamination sources at our beaches are super local, and the solutions are super local as well."

Johnson will discuss likely sources of the contamination and ways that the Town, the Health Department, and neighborhood Civic Association are already working to rectify the problem. According to Johnson, "We have the start of good collaboration here. Now we need to solidify plans and hold all of us accountable for implementing solutions."

"Our message is one of hope—despite the current number of unsafe and unhealthy beaches Sound-wide, beach by beach we can identify bacterial sources and fix them. It's time for serious local action to clean up our beaches and make it safe to enjoy our urban sea for decades to come," Johnson said. "Our vision for Long Island Sound is simple: clean beaches that are healthy for all to enjoy, and healing the ecological damage to Sound so all of our favorite life—from minnows to osprey to porpoise—are again abundant."

The meeting will be held Wednesday, May 11, 2016, 7 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. at  Branford Firehouse Community Room, 45 N. Main St.