The Capital Beach explores the National Estuary Program (NEP). The NEP is a place-based program at the US Environmental Protection Agency created to protect and restore the water quality and ecological integrity of estuaries of national significance. Currently, 28 estuaries located along the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts and in Puerto Rico are designated as estuaries of national significance. The Capitol Beach host Derek Brockbank welcomes three guests to the pod: Roberta Swann, the Director of the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program, Laura Blackmore, the Director of the Puget Sound Partnership, and Jeff Lerner, the Partnerships Program Branch Chief at the EPA.