The Anne Arundel County 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 Patuxent waterways.
The contract with Houston-based 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 be paid only 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 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.
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 2018 and, contingent upon approval in the upcoming budget, an additional solicitation of $5 million would be made in the summer of 2017.