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

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.

Assistance agreements are issued only to those estuaries designated by the Administrator. The Administrator is authorized to make grants to State, interstate, and regional water pollution control agencies and entities; State coastal zone management agencies; interstate agencies; and other public and private nonprofit agencies, institutions, organizations, and individuals (Section 320(g)(l)). Profit making organizations are not eligible for grants. For certain competitive funding opportunities under this assistance listing, the Agency may limit eligibility to compete to a number or subset of eligible applicants consistent with the Agency's Assistance Agreement Competition Policy.

Anyone/General Public.

Clean Water Act Section 320 authorizes issuance of assistance agreements used to meet requirements to develop and implement CCMPs. Annual workplans, which address priority actions in the CCMPs, lay out projects to be undertaken during the fiscal year. They are developed and approved by each management conference. Twenty-eight estuaries have been designated as estuaries of national significance; those 28 are: Long Island Sound Study, Puget Sound Partnership, Buzzards Bay National Estuary Program, Narragansett Bay Estuary Program, New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary Program, Delaware Center for the Inland Bays, Sarasota Bay Estuary Program, Galveston Bay Estuary Program, Santa Monica Bay National Estuary Program, Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership, San Francisco Estuary Partnership, Casco Bay Estuary Partnership, Massachusetts Bays National Estuary Program, Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program, Tampa Bay Estuary Program, Peconic Estuary Program, San Juan Bay Estuary Partnership, Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program, Tillamook Estuaries Partnership, the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program, Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership, Barnegat Bay Partnership, Maryland Coastal Bays Program, Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program, Mobile Bay National Estuary Program, Morro Bay National Estuary Program, and Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership. NEPs and their partners carry out such actions as: (1) protecting and restoring habitat; (2) identifying research needs and conducting research as needed to obtain new data to address priority problems; (3) monitoring estuarine conditions to detect changes in water quality and condition of ecosystem resources; and (4) providing technical assistance to States and local communities to address impacts from nutrient over-enrichment, stormwater, sedimentation, toxics, pathogens, and aquatic invasive species; to assess vulnerability from recurring extreme weather impacts; and to develop adaptation strategies and tools. Assistance agreement awards under this program may involve or relate to geospatial information. Further information regarding geospatial information may be obtained by viewing the following website: Geospatial Resources at EPA. Additionally, section 320 authorizes issuance of competitive assistance agreements to address urgent and challenging issues that threaten the ecological and economic well-being of coastal areas. Issues in coastal areas include: (1) Loss of key habitats resulting in significant impacts on fisheries and water quality such as seagrass, mangroves, tidal and freshwater wetlands, forested wetlands, kelp beds, shellfish beds, and coral reefs; (2) Recurring harmful algae blooms; (3) Unusual or unexplained marine mammal mortalities; (4) Proliferation or invasion of species that limit recreational uses, threaten wastewater systems, or cause other ecosystem damage; (5) Flooding and coastal erosion that may be related to sea level rise, changing precipitation, or salt marsh, seagrass, or wetland degradation or loss; (6) Impacts of nutrients and warmer water temperatures on aquatic life and coastal ecosystems, including low dissolved oxygen conditions in estuarine waters; and (7) Contaminants of emerging concern found in coastal and estuarine waters such as pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and microplastics. This program makes Federal awards on a discretionary basis. A discretionary award means an award in which the Federal awarding agency, in keeping with specific statutory authority that enables the agency to exercise judgement ("discretion"), selects the recipient and/or the amount of Federal funding awarded through a competitive process or based on merit of proposals. A discretionary award may be selected on a non-competitive basis, as appropriate. For further information, please contact the Headquarters or regional office.

Assistance agreements are typically funded on a 12-month basis (yearly). Project period may cover up to 36 months, with continuations possible for certain types of projects. For IIJA agreements, funds remain until expended, allowing for extended project time frames when efficient.

EPA financial assistance programs and activities subject to intergovernmental review that are subject to review under State single point of contact procedures are identified at https://www.epa.gov/grants/epa-financial-assistance-programs-subject-executive-order-12372-and-section-204. Applicants for programs or activities subject to Intergovernmental Review that are not subject to State single point of contact review must provide directly affected State, areawide, regional, and local entities at least 60 days to review their application following notification by EPA that the application has been selected for funding as provided by 40 CFR 29.8(a) and (c). Regarding pre-application assistance with respect to competitive funding opportunities under this assistance listing, EPA will generally specify the nature of the pre-application assistance, if any, that will be available to applicants in the competitive announcement. For additional information, contact the individual(s) listed in the NOFO. For noncompetitive base funding, all work plans should be developed in response to the priority tasks identified in the management conference annual work plan. Work plans should also be developed in response to negotiated schedules for commitments to meet the purpose of a management conference outlined in the Act for the estuary. Each work plan will be considered by the appropriate management conference and the appropriate EPA Regional Office.

The evaluation and selection criteria for competitive awards under this assistance listing will be described in the NOFO.

Each application is reviewed by EPA Regional Offices to determine the adequacy of the application under grant regulations and National Estuary Program objectives, including technical merit and relevance of the project. Awards are issued by the EPA Regional Offices after approval by the appropriate Division Director. For competitive awards, EPA will review and evaluate applications submissions in accordance with the terms, conditions, and criteria stated in the competitive announcement. Competitions will be conducted in accordance with EPA policies/regulations for competing assistance agreements. For non-competitive awards made under this assistance listing, EPA will conduct an administrative evaluation to determine the adequacy of the application in relation to grant regulations and to technical and program evaluation to determine the merit and relevance of the project. The Agency will then advise the applicant if funding is being considered. A final work plan will then be negotiated with the applicant. Applications are also assessed consistent with the merit review regulations in 2 CFR 200.205.

Contact the headquarters (or regional office, as appropriate) for application deadlines. For competitive awards, deadlines will be specified in the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO).

Approximately 90 days after deadline for application submission.

Assistance agreement competition-related disputes will be resolved in accordance with the dispute resolution procedures published in 70 FR (Federal Register) 3629, 3630 (January 26, 2005). Copies of these procedures may also be found at: https://www.epa.gov/grants/grant-competition-dispute-resolution-procedures. Disputes relating to matters other than the competitive selection of recipients will be resolved under 2 CFR 1500 Subpart E, as applicable.