TBEP Tech Website

The Tampa Bay Estuary Program's Technical Advisory Committee consists of representatives from the scientific and technical staff of local, regional, state and federal agencies with regulatory or management mandates that affect Tampa Bay. Academia, the private and public sectors, and affected user groups interested in furthering and achieving the goals and objectives of the TBEP Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan. TBEP TAC representatives have scientific or technical expertise that assists the TBEP Management Board in the evaluation of complex environmental issues involving Tampa Bay and implementation of the CCMP.

For additional information about this committee, contact Program Scientist, Ed Sherwood ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

The Tampa Bay Nitrogen Management Consortium (NMC) was formed in 1996, consisting of participants from local governments, agencies, and private industry and businesses. The NMC was formed to develop Action Plans to meet the bay segment “hold-the-line” nitrogen load targets from the 1992-1994 period. Estimates of future loadings to the bay developed by the TBEP in the late 1990s indicated that without appropriate management, future TN loadings would be greater than the “hold-the-line” targets. So, the NMC collectively developed a Consortium Action Plan that included a number of nitrogen load reduction/preclusion projects designed to maintain the TN loadings at or below the target levels. Most recently (TBEP 2009), the Consortium has developed allocations commensurate to the nitrogen loads during the 1992-1994, "hold-the-line" period for all major nitrogen load sources to Tampa Bay.

For additional information about the Consortium, contact Program Scientist, Ed Sherwood ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

Meeting agendas, presentations, and additional resources related to the SW Florida Seagrass Working Group are available to the public in the article listings. Anyone may view this information, but please register a username on our TBEP Tech website, if you'd like to post a resource to this section.

If you have questions about the Southwest Florida Seagrass Working Group, contact Environmental Scientist, Lindsay Cross ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ), of the Tampa Bay Estuary Program.

Coordination of the water quality element of the TBEP CCMP is accomplished through the Regional Ambient Monitoring Program (RAMP), which was initiated by TBEP in 1992, but is now coordinated by the local governments that run the monitoring programs. RAMP participants meet quarterly to collect water samples from a common container. Each program has its own laboratory run the samples for a core group of parameters (TN, nitrate+nitrite, ammonia, TSS, TP, orthophosphate, color, turbidity, and chlorophyll a), and the RAMP participants compare the results. To date, the RAMP participants have worked out differences between laboratories for several critical parameters (chlorophyll, TN, TP, TSS) and continue to work on others (color, for example).

For additional information about the SWFL RAMP, contact Richard Boler, EPCHC ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).