Assistance program
National Estuary Program
$374.7 Million committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Protection Agency
- Assistance
- Project Grants
- CFDA number
- 66.456
- What it does
- 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 climate vulnerability assessments and developing and implementing climate change adaptation strategies and using adaptation tools to promote coastal resilience; and developing and implementing strategies to provide opportunities for residents of urban minority and/or under-served communities to have greater access to urban waters, participate in urban ecosystem restoration, and participate in capacity-building/educational activities. 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. NEP projects funded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 (IIJA, Public Law 117-58), also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), should seek to: accelerate and more extensively implement CCMPs, ensure that benefits reach disadvantaged communities, build the adaptive capacity of ecosystems and communities to climate change, and leverage additional resources, including from other IIJA programs. After approval of each estuary program’s equity strategy, EPA will waive non-federal cost-share requirements for FY 2024 – FY 2026 IIJA funds. The purpose of the equity strategy is to ensure that each NEP is reviewing potential projects and utilization of IIJA funds through the lens of equitable and fair access to the benefits from environmental programs for all individuals. The equity strategy should outline how IIJA funds will be utilized to increase investments in disadvantaged communities and the benefits that flow to them. 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 management plans known as Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plans (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 climate change impacts, and adaptation strategies to build regional, local, and tribal officials' capacity to address climate change impacts on NEP watersheds, and to promote community resilience. Activities that build capacity include conducting vulnerability assessments and developing and implementing climate 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. In FY 2023, EPA also funded through the NEP Coastal Watersheds Grant an intermediary organization to fund subawards that support projects that address urgent and challenging issues that threaten the ecological and economic well-being of coastal and estuarine areas.