March 28, 2024
Annapolis, US 51 F

Schuh announces public-private partnership to clean up area waterways

Steve Schuh
Steve Schuh, Anne Arundel County Executive

Anne Arundel County Executive Steve Schuh recently announced the Department of Public Works (DPW) Watershed Protection and Restoration Program (WPRP)  has entered into a public-private partnership to clean up the Severn Run, Patapsco, and Paxtuxent waterways.

“Engaging the private sector to assist the County achieve its clean water goals in this way represents the best type of public, private partnership,” said County Executive Steve Schuh.  “Tapping into creative solutions from private industry to the benefit of the people of our County embodies my administration’s commitment to fiscal responsibility and protecting the County’s waterways.”

The contract with Resource Environmental Solutions (RES) is a first of its kind agreement to utilize cutting edge technology for needed stormwater capital projects and pollution reductions at no risk to the County. The $3.8 million “Full Delivery of Water Quality Improvements” contract is uniquely structured to help the County better satisfy its Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) and Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) permits and goals and will only be paid upon completion of the projects and verification of the projects’ benefits.

The suite of water quality protection and improvement practices proposed by RES includes more than 3,500 linear feet (lf) of stream and outfall restoration in the Severn Run watershed and new, cutting edge optimization technology applied to three large, private stormwater facilities in the Patapsco and Patuxent River watersheds.

 

“We were extremely pleased with the quality, innovation, and creativity of the proposals we received in this first solicitation,” said DPW Director Christopher Phipps.  “Similar to a public/private partnership (P3) arrangement, this Full Delivery model is likely to become an increasingly valuable tool for Anne Arundel County’s water quality improvement efforts and can easily be scaled up to provide broader pollutant reductions countywide to supplement the County’s own, parallel, restoration efforts.”

RES’s work will focus on sites that had not initially been targeted for restoration by the County.

The County’s capital program includes a similar effort for Fiscal Year 2018 and, contingent upon approval in the upcoming budget, an additional solicitation of $5 million would be made in the summer of 2017.

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