Maryland Stormwater Partnership Ahead of Schedule, Under Budget

The Clean Water Partnership (CWP), a 30-year community-based public-private partnership between Prince George’s County, Maryland and Corvias, said it has completed its initial pilot phase under budget and in half the scheduled time while increasing outreach to community stakeholders and investing in small minority and disadvantaged businesses.

CWP said its development and implementation of a turnkey stormwater management program proved the ability to achieve regulatory compliance while generating greater community support and long-term economic benefits. 

The partnership completed a large scale model solution to stormwater management, Corvias founder John Picerne said, while “turning a regulatory mandate and fiscal burden into a program that positively impacts the health of the local watersheds and Chesapeake Bay.”

CWP’s initial pilot included retrofitting 2,000 acres using greater than 87% local minority and target class County businesses, and saving the County more than 40% compared to traditional, non-bundled procurements.  The full report provides results and statistics, and is available for download.

“This unique partnership has allowed Corvias to aggregate the county’s stormwater challenges into a performance-based, investable program,” said Greg Cannito, partnership innovator for Corvias. “This partnership demonstrates how to meet regulatory compliance, while reducing the burden on local government budgets, creating economic growth, and fostering better local development practices.”

Highlights of the CWP report include:

• Completed and certified retrofits over 2,000 acres – equivalent to 1,407 football fields – across 94 different projects in only 36 months. This includes projects on public schools, municipal sites, public ponds, and private property as a part of the Alternative Compliance Program. To date the Project has resulted in pollutant load reductions including 32,614 lbs. of total nitrogen, 3,269 lbs. of total phosphorous and 1,834,791 total lbs. of total suspended solid per year.
• Greening and beautifying our landscape planting 250 trees – equivalent to 65,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per year – and over 6,000 shrubs and improving our local rivers and streams removing over 1.8M pounds of sediment across our County.
• 30 years of growth and investment with $132 million total economic impact of local spending, $14.6 million total tax revenue from retrofits, and 94 percent of total economic impacts will be local.
• Investing $500,000 to youth and educational programs, creating an incubator and mentor protégé development program for over 15 Prince George’s County local small minority disadvantaged businesses, supporting paid internship opportunities for 50 students.
• 15 church retrofits through the alternate compliance program (ACP), 22 schools through the partnership with the Prince George’s County Public Schools System (PGCPS), and 23 retrofits on municipal properties throughout the County through the municipal outreach program.

The CWP has also been recognized by The White House and EPA for its innovative approach to infrastructure improvement, as well as by the Natural Resource Defense Council, Corvias said, adding that some universities have begun used CWP as a case study for their student projects.

“From the increase of the community’s awareness of adverse effects of polluted runoff to the growth of small businesses focused on green infrastructure, the EPA has validated the Clean Water Partnership as a best practice for municipalities looking to make significant environmental improvements,” said Keisha Brown, partnership liaison for Corvias. “

Privately-owned Corvias is based in East Greenwich, R.I.  It works on behalf of military, colleges and public-sector agencies to develop solutions that address deficiencies in infrastructure and facilities caused by chronic underinvestment. – UC

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