On Nov. 19, Corvias Solutions announced that it has signed a first-of-its-kind, community-based, public-private partnership (P3) with Prince George’s County, Maryland. This $100 million, 30-year partnership comes to fruition after a unanimous decision by the Prince George’s County Council and more than a year’s worth of negotiations.

Corvias Solutions is a privately-held company and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Corvias Group that partners with public sector institutions to solve environmental, energy, and infrastructure challenges. Their partnership with Prince George’s County, called The Clean Water Partnership, addresses environmental regulatory requirements for stormwater management under the Federal Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), while also strengthening local economic development.

The P3 option will help to meet the aggressive schedule established by the Chesapeake Bay TMDL, which requires Prince George’s County to retrofit 3240 impervious hectares (8000 ac) within a 10-year time frame. Additionally, this approach is projected to provide significant cost-savings compared to the standard procurement process and is expected to drive economic growth through the addition of up to 5,000 new entry-level, green jobs in the county.

“Both the private and public sectors have strengths that we can leverage for the common good,” said Prince George’s County Department of the Environment (DOE) Director Adam Ortiz. “Through this partnership, we will meet our clean water requirements with more speed, more jobs, and more savings, while establishing Prince George’s as an industry center for stormwater.”

Corvias’ experience in implementing innovative, community-based P3s is being applied to stormwater as part of a pilot program with Prince George’s County, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Maryland Department of the Environment. The pilot was designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of P3s in addressing complex infrastructure challenges, such as those associated with stormwater.

Under the terms of the 30-year partnership, the County will invest $100 million in the initial three-year retrofit and Corvias will manage the design, construction, and long-term maintenance of stormwater management systems for up to 1620 impervious hectares (4000 ac). As an added requirement, the program will also drive local economic development by using local small and minority-owned businesses for at least 35% of the total project scope.

Learn more about Prince George’s County’s community-based public-private partnership in this interview with Larry Coffman, deputy director of the county’s Department of Environmental Resources.