
	National Estuary Program

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	EPA Home > Water > Wetlands, Oceans & Watersheds > Oceans, Coasts, and Estuaries > Partnerships > National Estuary Program > Sustainable Financing Strategies

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Sustainable Financing Strategies

On average, the National Estuary Programs (NEPs) raise $15.50 for every $1 provided by EPA. The NEPs successfully leverage federal seed money by:

Developing finance plans
Building strategic alliances
Demonstrating environmental results
Providing seed money or staff to initiate and develop new funding sources such as stormwater utilities.

Graph shows cumulative section 320 funding increasing from $0 to about $50 from 2003 through 2007. Cumulative primary leveraging increases from $200 to $1400 over the same time period.

Figure 1:Over the 2003-2007 period the NEPs leveraged $1.4 billion. This additional funding came from a variety of federal, state, local, and private sources through such mechanisms as annual membership appeals, license plate revenues, fines and penalties, State appropriations, and intergovernmental agreements. There are many sustainable funding examples from the NEPs.

From 2005-2007, the National Estuary Program's primary leveraging investments totaled $965 million. Less than 5% of NEP leveraged dollars are invested in NEP overhead. The majority of the leveraged dollars are invested in land acquisition, restoration, and wastewater projects that implement the NEP's Comprehensive Conservation Management Plans.

Figure 2: The NEPs use leveraged resources to protect and restore important habitat, conduct outreach and education, upgrade stormwater infrastructure and implement other priority actions contained in their Comprehensive Conservation Management Plans.

Additional Resources:

Watershed Funding Web site provides links to requests for proposals, tools, databases, and information about sources of funding to practitioners and funders that serve to protect watersheds.

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