ELLICOTT CITY, MD – Howard County Executive Calvin Ball today announced Howard County Government was recognized with the Water Environment Federation’s (WEF) “Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) Phase I Innovation” award at its recent annual Technical Exhibition and Conference in Chicago.
Part of the National Municipal Stormwater and Green Infrastructure Awards program, co-sponsored by WEF and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, this award recognizes a large municipality for developing and implementing new and creative ways to manage its stormwater. The County was recognized with this award for its innovative and transferable Commercial Stormwater Solutions Partnership (CSSP) program, which implements a private-public partnership to deploy advanced stormwater technology, resulting in significant financial and environmental benefits.
Our County’s stormwater program is a national model for collaboration to reduce the impacts of stormwater pollution, erosion, and destructive flooding, especially as threats increase due to climate change. This award recognizes an innovative public-private partnership that provided a critical investment in flood resilience and the health of our local waterways and the Chesapeake Bay, while offering significant financial savings for the County and our partners.
Developed by the County’s Office of Community Sustainability (OCS) nearly 10 years ago, the CSSP program encourages commercial property owners to actively reduce their stormwater runoff, which is a primary cause of pollution and water quality concerns, stream erosion, and flooding in the region. Under the CSSP program model, the County provides most of the stormwater project’s capital funding in exchange for the property owner’s participation and ongoing management. In turn, the property owner’s watershed protection fees are also reduced.
I’m proud of OCS Stormwater Programs Manager Lindsay DeMarzo. I'm especially grateful for her leadership of the County team that showed great tenacity and ingenuity in driving the success of this great initiative. It’s just the kind of public-private partnership we need to advance a ‘whole-of-community’ approach on climate and sustainability that delivers good results for both our environment and the economy, thereby improving our quality of life.
As an exemplar of creative approaches to managing stormwater and green infrastructure, the WEF award recognized the County’s project to retrofit three stormwater management ponds located in a business park comprised of nine different commercial developers. Through OCS’s CSSP program, the project melded innovative financing models with the use of advanced stormwater management technology to increase water quality treatment time and maximize flood control in the three retrofitted ponds. The project successfully navigated financial, logistical, and stormwater management design hurdles and is now saving the commercial property owners $160,000 in annual watershed fees. In turn, the County is saving millions of dollars over the cost of a typical stormwater management pond retrofit, while helping to reach its stormwater permit goals. Through this project, the business park’s ponds are keeping 216 pounds of nitrogen, 42 tons of sediment, and 34 pounds of phosphorus from local streams annually.
“Howard County’s strategic approach to managing stormwater, integrating green infrastructure, and implementing forward-thinking solutions serve as a model for other communities,” said Lisa Deason, WEF Senior Manager of Community Engagement. “By exceeding regulatory requirements and showcasing a strong commitment to sustainability, environmental stewardship, and innovation, this program is driving meaningful environmental progress.”
OCS’s other innovative partnerships include its Nonprofit Watershed Protection Partnership, which has more than 200 participants, and its Community Stormwater Partnership Grant, which awards more than $350,000 per year to nonprofits and homeowner associations for water quality projects.
About The Water Environment Federation
WEF is a not-for-profit technical and educational organization comprised of more than 30,000 individual members and 75 affiliated Member Associations representing water quality professionals from around the world. Since 1928, the WEF and its members have protected public health and the environment. Its global network of members and member associations also provide water quality professionals with the latest in water quality education, training, and business opportunities. WEF’s diverse membership includes scientists, engineers, regulators, academics, utility managers, plant operators, and other professionals. WEF uses this collective knowledge to further its shared goal of improving water quality around the world. To learn more about WEF, visit www.wef.org.