U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal is asking the federal government for help in getting a handle on hydrilla. As Connecticut Public’s Aine Pennello reports, that’s a fast-growing weed that’s taken over the Connecticut River.
Imagine the Connecticut River filled with a plant that grows in thick strands of green spaghetti. What sounds like something from a children’s cartoon is a nightmare scenario that Senator Blumenthal and others have been fighting for years.
Blumenthal: "Nobody wants to go out on a waterway and see all this ugly stuff in the river or in lakes, and it has now spread to 10 other water bodies in Connecticut."
That "ugly stuff" is hydrilla. The invasive plant can block sunlight and lower the amount of oxygen in water, harming fish and other plants. It can also get tangled up in boat propellers.
Blumenthal is asking the federal government for $18 million to research and combat the plant.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been studying and treating hydrilla in Connecticut but their research was scaled back last year when federal funding was not renewed.
Aine Pennello, Connecticut Public Radio
