About Us
San Francisco Estuary Partnership Planning Area
Our Story
The San Francisco Estuary Partnership is part of the National Estuary Program, a non-regulatory program of the EPA created through the Clean Water Act. Our planning area encompasses the San Francisco Estuary and its watersheds, from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the San Francisco Bay.
Who We Are
We lead a regional strategy, the Estuary Blueprint (also known as the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan, or CCMP) to protect and restore the water quality and ecological integrity of the Estuary from the Golden Gate to the Sacramento Delta.
Catalyst: The San Francisco Estuary Partnership convenes agencies and organizations in the region and catalyzes regional work towards our collective vision of a health Estuary. We work hand-in-hand with communities, funders, and other key stakeholders to collaborate, innovate, and adapt to the dynamic needs of the estuary and its watershed communities against a backdrop of global climate change.
Scale: The San Francisco Estuary Partnership builds partnerships and leverages federal funding with millions of dollars in state and local funds for regional-scale restoration, water quality improvement, and resilience-building projects.
Unique Structure: San Francisco Estuary Partnership is a part of the National Estuary Program, a place-based program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Estuary Partnership sits within the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), the regional housing, land use, and transportation planning agencies. We are a regional governmental organization with a federal mandate to protect and restore the nationally significant San Francisco Estuary.
What We Do
The San Francisco Estuary Partnership and its collaborators are meeting the moment of climate change in the San Francisco Estuary. We take a community-centered approach to improve water quality, increase the quantity of fresh water available to the area, improve habitat for wildlife, and help the Estuary become more climate resilient in a way that promotes equitable and just outcomes.
Impact
We secure funding, oversee implementation, and protect this natural resource for the region. Our impact can be seen in the volume of federal and state funding going to local projects in the region to maintain a healthy Estuary and advance environmental justice.
Estuary Blueprint
We lead implementation of the Estuary Blueprint (also known as the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan, or “CCMP”), a comprehensive, collective vision for the Estuary’s future. All National Estuary Programs across the US are required to create their own respective CCMPs through the Clean Water Act. The most recent 2022 Estuary Blueprint features 25 urgent, priority actions. These include actions in the areas of climate resilience, community-informed adaptation planning and implementation, water conservation, stormwater management, and more to preserve the estuary.
Equity
We are committed to advancing environmental equity in the region through community-engaged planning and design; organizational capacity building through grantwriting and technical assistance; cultivation of the next generation of emerging environmental leaders from frontline communities; and advancing nature-based solutions to climate change that prioritize equitable processes and outcomes. The 2022 Estuary Blueprint explicitly calls for broader stakeholder representation at the planning table and seeks to address the needs of those who have historically been unable to participate in the environmental planning process due to systemic and institutional barriers.
