Legal Docket

Clean Water • Land Protection • Fisheries • Climate & Resiliency • Environmental Justice

When the government fails its duty to protect land, air, and water, federal and state environmental laws give citizens and nonprofit organizations like Save the Sound the authority to take action. Legal action has been a pillar of Save the Sound’s effectiveness since our founding, and over the five decades since, we’ve consistently taken polluters to court and won. Yet while much progress has been made, much remains to be achieved—we are always on watch for emerging threats to public health and our natural resources.

Here are just some of our current and recent legal actions to protect your right to healthy waters, clean air, and thriving natural lands.

NOTE: This page is a work in progress; please check back for updates as the status of cases and details of actions change.

Active Legal Actions

Clean Water Strategic Litigation and Advocacy

Comprehensive Long Island Sound Nitrogen Pollution Strategy – Save the Sound has a multi-faceted litigation and administrative advocacy campaign to end nitrogen pollution in Long Island Sound and the dead zones, toxic algae bloom and other harms it causes.

Updated November 24, 2023: Long Island State Parks Nitrogen Lawsuit

Updated November 7, 2023: Suffolk County Nitrogen Pollution – Green Amendment

Updated November 16, 2022: New York City Sewage Treatment Plants – Administrative Advocacy

Updated October 22, 2021: Springfield Water & Sewer Commission

Sewage Free Long Island Sound Strategic Litigation – Save the Sound is bringing cases throughout the LIS region to stop raw and partially treated sewage from being discharged to the Sound.

Updated November 21, 2023: Swimmable Waters for NYC

Updated November 7, 2023: Norwalk Sewage Overflows

Updated October 30, 2023: Westchester County Sewage Overflows

Updated November 17, 2022: Darien Sewage Overflows

Updated November 17, 2022: Greater Hartford (MDC) Sewage Overflows

Updated November 17, 2022: Stamford Sewage Bacteria

Updated November 1, 2022: Greater New Haven WPCA 2.1 Million Gallon Sewage Overflows into Mill River

Stormwater Pollution Strategic Litigation and Advocacy– Save the Sound is investigating and bringing cases throughout the LIS region to require municipalities and others to address stormwater pollution which is the biggest driver of water pollution today.

Updated November 6, 2023: Stormwater Pollution Lawsuits re: Middletown, Ridgefield, Redding, and Burlington