HARTFORD >> Efforts to clean up Long Island Sound have been going on for years but legislators and environmental advocates say more needs to be done.

That is why U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn, said he is calling on the federal government to dedicate $860 million annually to help fund research and cleanup efforts in and around the Sound.

“This is an aggressive plan, but we are fooling ourselves if we think we can protect the Sound with year after year of flat funding,” Murphy said. “We don’t have a lot of time to get the funding levels we need to protect the Sound.”

Murphy’s Long Island Sound Investment Plan asks the Senate Appropriations Committee to dedicate $139 million more than it previously has on Sound cleanup and restoration efforts.

But the investments are worth it, Murphy said, because the Sound contributes to roughly $17 billion of the Connecticut economy and close to 79,000 jobs.

Murphy’s funding plan targets four areas: storm resilience, supporting the fishing industry, protecting coastal areas and beaches from pollution, and restoring coastal habitats.

“There is a lot of need for this money,” said Curt Johnson, executive director of Connecticut Fund for the Environment Save the Sound, a bi-state group dedicated to preserving and restoring Sound habitats. “(Murphy) is really setting important benchmarks for our future, for our children, and for our Sound.”

Johnson said that climate change is posing many serious threats to the Sound today, including adding to the acidification of ocean water, which is of a main concern for shellfish production, and increasing the threat of major storms along the Connecticut coastline.

Johnson said changes in the acidity of ocean waters have had adverse effects on juvenile shellfish populations. He argued many species are on the brink of no longer being able to reproduce in Sound waters.

This is especially problematic given how many people eat shellfish and what shellfish can do for the environment, according to Ben Goetsch, of the Milford-based fishery company, Briarpatch Enterprises.

Briarpatch is a member of the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association, a group dedicated to protecting the environment so shellfish can continue to be farmed sustainably all along the East Coast.

Goetsch said shellfish aquaculture is one of the most sustainable forms of protein production in the world. The shellfish are put in the water and when they are later harvested for food the water is of better quality because the animals are filter feeders and remove pollutants from the environment.

“But, our product is directly related to the quality of the water,” Goetsch said, referring to the acidity of the water. He added that shellfish is one of the fastest growing food sources, but that growth is directly threatened by the increasing acidity of ocean waters, which scientists believe is a direct result of climate change.

As for storm resilience, Johnson said efforts to reduce major flooding in case of extreme weather have already been underway with the removal of old dams along Connecticut’s rivers and addition of plants to those restored riverbanks. The Hyde Pond Dam near Mystic was recently removed as well as the Pond Lily Dam in New Haven. Restoring those rivers’ natural flow not only helps the migratory fish species but also reduces the risk of catastrophic flooding in case of a dam failure in a major storm event, Johnson said.

Murphy also addressed the need to target nitrogen sources that contribute to pollution in the Sound, including managing storm water runoff and combined sewer overflows. Murphy has previously supported the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s nitrogen reduction plan that aims to find the primary sources of nitrogen pollution over the next year so as to provide more adequate funding to deal with the problem.

Murphy said he was hopeful some form of the plan would pass in Congress, though he admitted the numbers may be higher than U.S. legislators are willing to commit. But, setting the bar high was an important part of the process, he said.

“I’m willing to admit that this is a best case scenario,” he said. But, eventually, Congress will have to spend money on these types of programs because the negative effects of climate change are already in motion, he said.

“We’re going to spend money on coastal resiliency either now or later,” Murphy said.