Estuaries and Coastal Watersheds

About Estuaries

Estuaries are places where freshwater from a river mixes with saltwater from the sea. Estuaries come in all shapes and sizes. They are often known as bays, sounds, lagoons, harbors, or inlets (note though that not all water bodies by those names are necessarily estuaries; the defining feature of an estuary is the mixing of fresh and salt water, not the name.)

• What is an Estuary?
• Why are Estuaries Important?
• Why Protect Estuaries?
• What You Can Do to Help.
• Learn more about EPA's National Estuary Program.
• Learn More About Watersheds - the land areas that drain into estuaries.
• Learn More About the Council of Large Aquatic Ecosystems.

National Estuary Program (NEP) Overview

The NEP was established under Section 320 of the 1987 Clean Water Act (CWA) Amendments as a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) place-based program to protect and restore the water quality and ecological integrity of estuaries of national significance. Section 320 of the CWA calls for each NEP to develop and implement a Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP). The CCMP is a long-term plan that contains specific targeted actions designed to address water quality, habitat, and living resources challenges in its estuarine watershed.

NEP Locations (PDF) (1 pg, 3.6MB, About PDF)

Each NEP has a Management Conference (MC) made up of diverse stakeholders including citizens, local, state, and Federal agencies, as well as with non-profit and private sector entities. Using a consensus-building approach and collaborative decision-making process, each MC works closely together to implement the CCMP. The MC ensures that the CCMP is uniquely tailored to the local environmental conditions, is based on local input, and supports local priorities.

Currently there are 28 estuaries located along the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts and in Puerto Rico that have been designated as estuaries of national significance. Each NEP focuses it work within a particular place or boundary called a study area which includes the estuary, and surrounding watershed.

National Estuary Program Information

National Estuary Program Booklet (PDF) (11 pp, 2.8MB, About PDF) | En Español
Cover Photo Credit: Mark Lagrange - The NEP Booklet provides an overview of the program and describes how NEPs are effective, efficient, collaborative, and adaptive community-based programs.

This page provides links to non-EPA Web sites that provide additional information. You will leave the EPA.gov domain and enter another page with more information.

Challenges and Approaches

Challenges facing our Estuaries and NEP Approaches for Restoration

Estuaries face a host of common challenges. Because we love and depend on the water, more than half of the people in the United States live within 100 miles of the coast, including on the shores of estuaries. And more and more people are moving to these areas. Coastal communities are growing three times faster than counties elsewhere in the country.

• Introduction
• Alteration of Natural Hydrologic Flows
• Aquatic Nuisance Species
• Climate Change
• Declines in Fish & Wildlife Populations
• Habitat Loss & Degradation
• Nutrient Loads
• Pathogens
• Stormwater
• Toxics

Conditions

NEPs are required to monitor the effectiveness of their management activities to address estuary-specific priority problems. In addition, the Clean Water Act requires EPA to report periodically on the condition of the nation's estuarine waters. To meet those mandates, EPA and each NEP monitor conditions in estuarine/coastal waters.

As stated in the 2007 National Estuary Program Coastal Condition Report, the NEP estuaries are rated "fair" and scored equal to or higher than all other US estuaries combined despite increasing population pressures in the 28 estuarine watersheds. This rating is based on four key indicators of ecological health: water quality, sediment quality, benthic community condition, and fish tissue contaminants.

Individual NEPs have also worked with their many partners to collect, compile and analyze monitoring data producing "State of the Bay" reports about their estuaries every 3-5 years. Since these data are collected over a longer time period and from more sampling sites than are depicted in the NEP CCR, they provide a more comprehensive picture of NEP estuarine conditions than does the NEP CCR.

Environmental Indicators

To gauge an estuary's health, each NEP develops environmental indicators—"specific, measurable markers that help assess the condition of the environment and how it changes over time" (see Indicator Development for Estuaries, EPA 842-B-08-004 September 2008). For each environmental indicator, a quantitative or qualitative measure is developed based on the goals and objectives of a CCMP, which in turn reflect the priorities of local stakeholders. These indicators can include water and sediment quality, land use, living resources, and habitat among many others.

Volunteer Monitoring

Citizen volunteers play an important role when it comes to monitoring conditions in our estuaries, particularly water quality conditions. See the Volunteer Estuary Monitoring Manual to learn how to establish and maintain a volunteer monitoring program, as well as how to work effectively with volunteers and ensur their safety.

Accomplishments and Environmental Results

Habitat

Learn more about habitat loss and degradation and contributing factors. View national habitat goals and total NEP annual results, see examples of individual NEP habitat plans, and learn about reporting environmental results.

Get information about each local NEP protection and restoration projects and Regional summaries by visiting NEPmap.

Lessons from the NEP

EPA's place–based National Estuary Program provides important lessons for other coastal communities working to restore and protect their watersheds. The following lessons learned are drawn from the 28 individual NEPs and documented in the documents shown below.

NEP Lessons Learned

• Effective governance (PDF) (15 pp, 1.1MB, About PDF) structures and by-laws promote open discussion, cooperation, and information sharing that leads to consensus and the efficient use of resources.
• Science and local knowledge helps identify the causes and approaches (PDF) (19 pp, 1.1MB, About PDF) to remedy environmental challenges facing coastal areas.
• Comprehensive plans (PDF) (13 pp, 1.4MB, About PDF) include long-term goals for the estuary, major challenges, and action developed with broad wide stakeholder input and updated regularly.
• Effective implementation (PDF) (25 pp, 927K, About PDF) requires clear, realistic, and measurable definitions of success; a diversity of funding sources; and broad public support.

Lessons from the National Estuary Program: Community-Based Watershed Management

Evaluating NEP Progress

In order to assess NEP progress made toward achieving their long-term goals, EPA conducts a Program Evaluation for each NEP. EPA developed NEP Program Evaluation Guidance that provides EPA and the NEPs with direction on how to assess the effectiveness of NEP actions. The Guidance presented below includes performance measures, describes a process for conducting site visits, and provides a feedback loop which helps ensure that recommendations for improvement are implemented.

National Estuary Program Evaluation Guidance - Final 2011 (PDF) (37 pp, 480K, About PDF)

NEP Program Evaluation Results

The document below summarizes NEP strengths and challenges and how the NEP helps implement specific Clean Water Act programs.

EPA's 2004-2006 National Estuary Program Implementation Report (PDF)
(14 pp, 1MB, About PDF)