Organizational Assessment to Support the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Beyond 2025 Initiative

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States, stretching 200 miles and with a watershed that includes six states. Pollution from nutrient runoff and increasing population pressures have endangered the Bay. The first Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement was signed in 1983 to promote cooperation between the federal government and the states in protecting the Bay. The Agreement must be renegotiated every few years. As the 2014 version was set to expire in 2025, the Chesapeake Bay Program wanted to develop a new version using a deliberative process that considered key issues moving forward. The Program’s Principal Staff Committee formed a Beyond 2025 Steering Committee and charged it with developing principles to guide development of the 2025 watershed agreement. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) contracted with ERG to support the Beyond 2025 initiative by developing an organizational assessment that examined the Program’s organization structure; the Program’s interactions with external stakeholders; and how the partnership between EPA and the states led to outcome attainment under the Agreement. To develop this analysis, ERG: 

• Analyzed core Program and Agreement-related documents.
• Organized and facilitated small group discussions with internal and external stakeholders on various topics.
• Evaluated the Program’s logic model structure and organization. 

ERG’s final report provided a strong foundation for the Program to use in developing the 2025 version of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement.