Water

Watershed management is a term used to describe the process of implementing land use practices and water management practices to protect and improve the quality of the water and other natural resources within a watershed by managing the use of those land and water resources according to a comprehensive plan.

Lake Water Quality Management

Compensatory Water Resource Mitigation

DEEP's compensatory mitigation program homepage; an LWRD regulatory program that works to restore, enhance, and/or create water resources as compensation when impacts to resources occur.

CTs Watershed Management Program

The Connecticut DEEP created the Watershed Management Program to more effectively address water resource issues from an integrated watershed perspective. For purposes of water management, the state has been divided into five major watershed basins along natural watershed boundaries. DEEP Watershed Managers work within these five major watershed basins to assist communities in forming partnerships, drafting watershed based plans, and implementing environmental projects to restore and protect Connecticut's water quality on a watershed-wide scale.

Connecticut Wetlands

Learn about the very specific legal definitions for tidal wetlands and inland wetlands that Connecticut has.

Water Temperature Monitoring Project

Water temperature is very important to aquatic organisms as it can drive chemical reactions and physiological activity. In addition, water temperature is an important factor in determining which species of aquatic organisms, such as fish, are able to live in a particular section of river or stream. The Water Monitoring Group routinely monitors water temperature at wadeable river and stream locations across Connecticut. Data are collected to complement routine and probabilistic ambient biological monitoring data, to identify high quality watersheds as part of the Group’s Healthy Watersheds Initiative, and to support evaluation of temporal trends, quantification of natural variability, and testing of hypotheses and predictive models related to climate change and water resource management.

River and Stream Water Monitoring

DEEP has monitored rivers and streams for water quality since the 1970s. Current annual monitoring efforts include the collection of water chemistry, water temperature, macroinvertebrate community, fish community, periphyton community, and indicator bacteria data from locations throughout the State. This data collected by the Monitoring Program are used to assess the health of individual waterbodies. In addition, the data are used to support a variety of other projects, including evaluation of trends in Connecticut’s water quality in the state, study of the potential impacts of climate change on our waterbodies, and supporting nutrient and temperature criteria development.

Inland Wetlands and Watercourses

CT DEEP inland wetlands and watercourses home page.

Stormwater Planning Tool for Impervious Cover

Stormwater planning tool: Impervious Cover (IC Response Plan) provides details on the local watershed conditions, impervious cover, and implementation measures.

Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Resources and References

Resources and References for Inland Wetlands & Watercourses

Guidelines for Soil Erosion and Sediment Control

LIS Quality Assurance Project Plans

Long Island Sound Quality Assurance Project Plans (QAPPs)

Long Island Sound Water Quality

Frequently Asked Questions about Drinking Water