Prince George’s Unique P3 Mirrored In PA

One Maryland county’s public private partnership (P3) serves as a model for local governments outside state lines.

Prince George’s County and private company Corvias joined forces to create the Clean Water Partnership in 2014 – a “community based public private partnership” tasked with retrofitting 2,000 impervious acres with green infrastructure, in compliance with federal regulation. Governing lauded the “unique” P3:

Using a public-private partnership to build green infrastructure on such a large scale is novel in itself. But the county is especially excited about the potential economic boost and other societal benefits the deal could bring to the region. Its partnership with Corvias Solutions includes incentives for all of those goals.

This summer, the city of Chester, Pennsylvania’s recently formed stormwater authority announces a similar partnership with Corvias to address its need to minimize flooding and eliminate sewage overflow into the Delaware River and other waterways. From Next City: 

The city, which is about 18 miles south of Philadelphia, has a combined sewer-stormwater system — and has until 2018 to come up with a plan to minimize flooding and eliminate sewage overflow into the Delaware River and other waterways. To do so, they’ve turned to private company Corvias, in what the city is calling a “community-based” public-private partnership. With an anticipated $50 million from a new stormwater fee, Corvias will plan and implement 350 acres of green stormwater infrastructure, and manage that system for the next 20 to 30 years.

The company took a similar approach in Prince George’s County, Maryland, which was also under a mandate to eliminate polluted runoff. There, as in Chester, Corvias aims to stick to the “high road infrastructure concept,” says Greg Cannito, Corvias project lead.

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In Prince George’s County, Corvias was able to hire 80 percent local businesses and 95 percent minority subcontractors. Nearly a third of all work hours are being done by residents. “It’s not just about building the infrastructure, it’s about building the infrastructure that creates employment,” says Cannito. Those same contractors will carry on maintenance work for the next three decades. “So what you do is you start to create actual expertise, experience, and a base amount of revenue for those small local businesses that they can then go and compete in the region,” he says.

Corvias will take the same approach in Chester, using green stormwater infrastructure as the catalyst.

Prince George’s County Department of the Environment Director Adam Ortiz will discuss his work on this innovative P3 at the MACo summer conference session, “Perfecting the Potential of Public Private Partnerships.” Read more about it in our brochure.

The MACo summer conference is August 16-19, 2017 at the Roland Powell Convention Center in Ocean City, Maryland. This year’s theme is “You’re Hired!”

Learn more about MACo’s Summer Conference: