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Basic Evaluation Approach:  How
did they do it?
The evaluation was conducted by a team of contractors
managed by Michael Mason, a program analyst in OW
The evaluation consisted of five steps, described below.
Step I:   During  the planning or project scoping
          phase,  the evaluation  team analyzed
          selected EPA  and  state  documents and
          conducted   interviews  with  EPA
          headquarters  and regional managers  to
          identify  key issues and questions regarding
          statewide  watershed  management
          approaches.
Stop II:   Based on information gathered in the
          scoping phase, eight  states  (Kentucky,
          Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina,
          Ohio, Oregon, Texas, and Washington)
          were  selected as the  focus  for the
          evaluation.
Step III:  The data  collection phase included
          facilitated  discussions and phone and in-
          person interviews with state water quality
          and water resource managers and staff.
          These discussions were then distilled into
          individual  summaries characterizing each
          state's  experience with the watershed
          management approach.
Step IV:  The evaluation   team  analyzed the
          summaries and  developed  a series  of
          findings and recommendations.
Step V:   These hndings were then communicated in
          a number of venues, including staff
          meetings and briefings  to senior and mid-
          level managers, and by posting the final
          report on EPAs Web site.

Evaluation  Results: What was
learned?
The evaluation found that 80 percent of the  state
managers included in the study felt that their experience
with the watershed  approach was positive.  The
evaluation results indicated that  the state-wide
watershed approach has resulted in numerous program
management benefits, such as dramatic improvement
in the quantity and quality of water quality monitoring
data, greater planning and assessment capabilities, and
more efficient and equitable permitting programs.
Despite these benefits, the study found that states face
significant internal and external barriers to effectively
implementing the approach.  Key barriers include
tensions  between federal and state water quality
programmatic requirements and team-based watershed
management; fragmented and output-oriented
oversight of state programs by federal agencies; and
incomplete integration  of core water quality program
elements  around the watershed approach.  The
evaluation also found that an essential component to
a successful statewide  watershed approach is inter-
agency and state-local partnerships mat are supported
by an adequate coordination infrastructure.  States also
believe that EPA should focus more resources and
attention on building  state watershed management
capacity  and documenting  the  resource  and
environmental gains  attributed to the  statewide
watershed management approach.
A total of 12 recommendations—six for EPA and six
for  states—were  made. These include, but are not
limited to, EPA encouraging senior  management  to
promote  key elements  of state-wide watershed
management approaches; providing information,
training, and  incentives to assist states in adopting
statewide watershed management approaches; and
working with states  to investigate and develop
solutions to Statewide watershed management.  States
•were encouraged to consider evaluating whether their
     Approach for this Evaluation
Step I
Project Scoping
Step II
Selecting States for Evaluation
Step III
Collecting Data through Discussion Sessions with States
Step IV	
Analyzing Data and Developing Findings and
Recommendations
Step V	
Communicating Findings
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watershed management frameworks have the necessary
components to facilitate resource leveraging, program
integration and accountability; building greater support
for the watershed approach at the senior management
level and with state legislatures; and improving the
integration of more  state programs into statewide
watershed approaches.

Evaluation Outcome:  What
happened as a result?

OWs management is planning to adopt the report's
findings and recommendations in  future decisions
regarding the watershed management approach. The
final report was well publicized both internally and
externally; it is accessible on EPA!s Web site at http://
www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/approaches  fr.pdf.
and has been distributed to all 50 states.
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of Policy,
Economics and Innovation
(1807T)
      June 2003
EPA-100-F-03-005
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