Category:Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program

In 1987, Congress established the National Estuary Program (NEP) as a non-regulatory, community-based program to protect and restore the water quality of estuaries. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administers the NEP, identifies Estuaries of National Significance and supports the development of comprehensive management plans to assure that estuaries maintain their ecological integrity.

The Indian River Lagoon was nominated as an Estuary of National Significance and joined the NEP in 1990 under the sponsorship of the St. Johns and South Florida Water Management Districts. The Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program (IRLNEP) Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) was published in 1997, 2008 and 2020.

In 2007, the IRLNEP embarked on a process to review and update the core of the 1996 Indian River Lagoon Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP), the set of 68 recommended action items in 4 topic areas that guide the IRL NEP‟s work. This initiative to update the CCMP was discussed by the IRL NEP Advisory Board during their April 2007 meeting, with direction to staff to generate a draft for review and comment. An updated IRLNEP CCMP was published in 2008.^[1]

Eleven years of implementation activities under the original CCMP has resulted in a remarkable amount of progress toward restoration and protection of the lagoon. However, new issues and threats to the lagoon, such as climate change, toxic algae and exotic invasive fauna and flora have emerged since the original CCMP's development. In addition, new science, research, technologies, programs and organizations now exist. IRLNEP's activities and annual work plan projects have continually evolved within the existing CCMP framework over the previous eleven years trying to adapt to these new challenges and opportunities, however the action items in the CCMP have not been updated to reflect this evolution.^[2]

The IRLNEP is sponsored by the IRL Council, which was established in February 2015 as a special district of Florida. The IRL Council includes representatives of five counties bordering the lagoon (Volusia, Brevard, the Indian River County Lagoon Coalition, St. Lucie and Martin counties), the St. Johns River and South Florida Water Management Districts, and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

The 2019 Indian River Lagoon NEP Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan^[3] is, as of 9 DEC 2019, under Final Draft Review and due to be published in early 2020.

Organizational Hierarchy

This organizational tree displays the U.S. Government hierarchy over the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program.