NATIONAL
                 INTERLOCAL AGREEMENT BUILDS  PARTNERSHIPS AND RAISES  FUNDS    «*£
 ESTUARY
 PROGRAM
                 A formal Interlocal Agreement in Tampa Bay, Florida, has helped ensure sustained funding to the region's estuary program since 2000, and generates at
                 least $415,000 in cash each year as a match toward EPA funding.

               J  Established in 1990, the Tampa Bay Estuary Program (TBEP) has worked diligently to involve local governments and Tampa Bay area citizens in its activi-
                 ties and in 1998 adopted a formal Interlocal Agreement that committed 15 partners to achieving the goals of the program's bay restoration plan. Partners
included city, county, and state governments, a water management district, a regional planning council, a port authority, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
THE NATIONAL ESTUARY PROGRAM IN ACTION
                                                                                             Tampa  Bay Estuary Program
                                                                              Goals of the bay restoration plan
                                                                              focus on restoring and sustain-
                                                                              ing a healthier bay that will sup-
                                                                              port recreational  and commer-
                                                                              cial  uses. Goals are related to
                                                                              improving water  and sediment
                                                                              quality, restoring seagrass beds
                                                                              and  coastal habitats, and reduc-
                                                                              ing   bacterial  contamination.
                                                                              Partners also committed to im-
                                                                              proving fish and wildlife regula-
                                                                              tion  and enforcement, managing
                                                                              dredging and dredged material,
                                                                              and  increasing public education
                                                                              and  involvement.

                                                                              TBEP's success in reaching con-
                                                                              sensus on the Interlocal Agree-
                                                                                                        ment can serve as a model for
                                                                                                        similar efforts by other commu-
                                                                                                        nity-based programs:

                                                                                                        • Having a  champion kept the
                                                                                                        process moving. The water man-
                                                                                                        agement district's representative
                                                                                                        on the TBEP Policy Board, an ex-
                                                                                                        perienced   contract   attorney,
                                                                                                        conceived the idea of the agree-
                                                                                                        ment, drafted it, and worked to
                                                                                                        build consensus among stake-
                                                                                                        holders and overcome obstacles
                                                                                                        in the process.

                                                                                                        • Long-term stakeholder  rela-
                                                                                                        tionships supported consensus.
                                                                                                        The Tampa Bay community has
 EFFECTIVE
                                    EFFICIENT
ADAPTIVE
COLLABORATIVE

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                                                been  working  together on bay
                                                management and protection for
                                                25 years, ever since the first Bay
                                                Area Scientific  Information Sym-
                                                posium (BASIS) in 1982. Several
                                                milestones followed BASIS that
                                                built a tradition of regional coop-
                                                eration among bay area scien-
                                                tists and resource managers and
                                                fostered consensus on the Inter-
                                                local Agreement.
ment would be a good invest-
ment for the partners. It was es-
timated that the added cost each
year to TBEP's partners for  im-
plementing the restoration plan
was insignificant  compared to
their overall budgets.

Visit www.tbep.org  to  learn
more about this and other TBEP
efforts.
                                                • Incentives encouraged partici-
                                                pation.  For example, participa-
                                                tion in the Estuary Program may
                                                have been spurred, in part, by a
                                                desire to ensure that the pro-
                                                gram followed a non-regulatory
                                                approach to resource  manage-
                                                ment. Regulators agreed to ex-
                                                tend reasonable flexibility in per-
                                                mitting projects of TBEP partners
                                                that helped achieve the goals of
                                                the bay restoration plan.

                                                Further, a track record of afford-
                                                able, successful demonstrative
                                                projects showed that the agree-
EPA's National Estuary Program
(NEP) is a unique and successful
coastal watershed-based program
established  in  1987  under the
Clean  Water Act Amendments.
The NEP involves the  public and
collaborates with partners to pro-
tect, restore, and maintain the wa-
ter quality and ecological integrity
of 28 estuaries of national signifi-
cance located in 18 coastal states
and Puerto Rico.

For more information about the
NEP  go to  www.epa.gov/owow/
estuaries.
The NEP:  Implementing the Clean Water Act in ways that are Effective, Efficient, Adaptive, and Collaborative.
                                                           EPA-842F09001

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