Unique Public-Private Partnership Tackles Stormwater Infrastructure in Maryland

Jeff Day reports on the details of a unique public-private partnership in Prince George County, Maryland, "which aims to slash the steep cost of reducing stormwater pollution…"

Prince George’s County and its partner, Corvias Solutions, hope to retrofit 15,000 acres’ worth of pavement and buildings in the largely suburban DC community, installing rain gardens, vegetated roofs and other water-absorbing landscape features to capture runoff and help meet the county’s obligations to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay.

Corvias is no stranger to working with public entities on infrastructure projects—building military housing with the Department of Defense. The Prince George County partnership, however, is the company's first focusing on stormwater.

Day notes that Prince George's County was developed inside the Beltway before stormwater runoff was recognized as a public health threat. Thus, the costs of retrofitting old stormwater infrastructure can be daunting at best and prohibitive at worst. Under the partnership, which Day describes in more detail, the cost of meeting a 2025 deadline to complete pollution reduction measures will be reduced by half—from $2 billion to $1 billion.