WASHINGTON (AP) — The Chesapeake Bay region would reap an additional $22.5 billion a year from improved hurricane protection, crab and fish production and climate stability if the Obama administration’s contested plan to clean up the watershed proceeds.

That’s according to an assessment released Monday by the environmental group Chesapeake Bay Foundation. It is based on a peer-reviewed analysis of the economic benefits to the entities charged with reducing pollution into the nation’s largest estuary.