National Estuary Program

The National Estuary Program (NEP) goal is to protect and restore the water quality and estuarine resources of estuaries and associated watersheds designated by the EPA Administrator as estuaries of national significance. The 28 estuaries of national significance, or NEPs, use an ecosystem-based management approach to help achieve their protection and restoration goals. For example, each NEP characterizes the priority problems in its estuary and surrounding watershed, develops a long-term plan known as a Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) that identifies actions to address those problems, and identifies partners, including lead entities, who will implement those actions. Implementation of CCMPs can include the following actions: protecting and restoring habitat, including wetlands; supporting water quality protection and restoration, including Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) plan implementation; monitoring for, assessing the extent of toxics loadings and pathogen contamination, and taking steps to address excess loadings and contamination; implementing stormwater management, reducing non-point source pollution impacts, and promoting the adoption of green infrastructure approaches; preventing the spread of aquatic invasive species and/or managing their impacts; developing and implementing nutrient reduction strategies; conducting vulnerability assessments and developing and implementing adaptation strategies for recurring extreme weather, and using adaptation tools to promote coastal resilience. In addition to CCMP implementation, NEPs and other eligible recipients, address urgent and challenging issues that threaten the ecological and economic well-being of coastal areas. EPA's funding priority is to award assistance agreements that support the 28 National Estuary Programs' (NEPs) efforts to address their estuarine watersheds' priority problems identified in each of the 28 long-term CCMPs. EPA will provide focused support for NEPs to address priority problems identified by NEP management conferences and to document accomplishments and environmental results. NEP efforts address such problems as: (1) impacts on estuarine water quality and living resources of nutrients, toxics (chemical, heavy metals), pathogen contamination, and sediment attributable to excess loadings and non-point stormwater runoff; e.g., excess nutrient loadings can result in nutrient over-enrichment and hypoxic conditions in estuarine water bodies; (2) habitat loss/degradation; (3) risks to CCMP implementation due to recurring extreme weather impacts, and adaptation strategies to build regional, local, and tribal officials' capacity to address impacts from recurring extreme weather on NEP watersheds, and to promote community resilience. Activities that build capacity include conducting vulnerability assessments and developing and implementing adaptation strategies and programs; and 4) need for decision makers in estuarine communities to implement sustainable land use, green infrastructure, and low-impact development best practices.