Delivering Projects using Community Based Partnership to meet Chesapeake Bay TMDL Requirements in Prince George's County, MD and Key Lessons Learned

Prince George's County, MD is located within the 80,000 square mile Chesapeake Bay watershed. EPA and the State of Maryland prepared the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (Bay TMDL) for restoring the Chesapeake Bay's chemically, biologically and physically impaired waters. The Bay TMDL requires States, Counties and Cities within the watershed to limit the amount of Total Phosphorus, Total Nitrogen and Total Suspended Sediment that is discharged through point and non-point sources (urban stormwater runoff). Prince George's County combined meeting regulatory requirements with targeted local workforce and business development for this pioneering alternative delivery project. Prince George's County (County) and Corvias Infrastructure Solutions (CIS) developed the Clean Water Partnership (CWP) to design, build and maintain urban stormwater quality treatment best management practices (BMPs) to meet the County's Bay TMDL obligations. In addition to infrastructure improvements, the CWP balances risk, priorities, and social needs, through this Community Based Partnership (CBP). Bringing financing, engineering design firms, contractors, outreach and social/economic goals to this project, environmental compliance is being achieved with local economic growth and community involvement. This groundbreaking and innovative alternative delivery method is the first in the country and required a pioneering, dynamic and responsive team effort to meet the multiple program objectives. The two main CBP program elements include: 1) Environmental goals of design, permitting and construction of stormwater treatment devices, located throughout the 500-square mile County, to treat urban stormwater runoff. 2) Social and economic goals to meet aggressive target class utilization (40% for local, small and minority businesses) and local workforce (51% county resident utilization). Between 2016 and 2021, CWP has successfully implemented over 150 projects, certified over 300 BMP devices to help meet the County's MS4 stormwater permit requirements. In this process, CWP spent over $140 million in design and construction and reduced approximately 53,700 lb. of Total Nitrogen (TN), 7,300 lb. of Total Phosphorus (TP) and 4,405,100 lb. of Total Suspended Solids (TSS). In addition, more than 15,000 acres of drainage area is also treated to reduce pollutants to Chesapeake Bay. A key to the success of the CWP Program has been clear programmatic metrics including indicators and beneficiaries from day one. Primary program metrics focused on schedule/speed, scale economies and performance, community outreach, local disadvantaged subcontractor utilization, local subcontractor development, workforce utilization, and workforce development. Additional metrics were related to alternative compliance and partner programs, and project budget books and schedules. Moving forward, the CWP Team is focused on executing efficiencies to design and construct additional large pond retrofit projects and stream restoration projects based on their monitoring and tracking of BMP cost-effectiveness throughout earlier phases. In addition to complete data inventories on the number of BMPs built and drainage area managed, the CWP Team analyzed pollution removal and cost data of BMPs to determine Total Nitrogen, Total Phosphorus and Total Suspended Solids reduction for 10+ different types of BMPs. This performance summary information directly influenced the planning and siting of each subsequent phase of BMP design and construction. At the same time the Program Management team will continue to rely on performance data and think creatively to achieve its program goals and metrics in future phases. The CWP team has been focusing on asset management as the Program matures to its subsequent phases. This presentation will provide useful information for utility and public works department leaders, and stormwater management staff about creating or tailoring an existing program to meet large-scale targets for capital project delivery intended to meet water quality goals or other stormwater related objectives such as resiliency and flood risk reduction. Partnership goals, organizational structures and integrated delivery partners roles and responsibilities, and program metrics will be shared for discussion. Detailed information will also be presented related to specific program elements and BMP performance data that helped the CWP Team to achieve program milestones. As more communities face increasing regulation and climate-related threats to their stormwater infrastructure, bundling capital improvement projects for cost-effective and timely implementation may be necessary. The CWP Team will share lessons learned from their 6+ years of program execution, specific keys to success for other communities to consider and adaptive management strategies for future CWP success.