The Environmental Finance Center (EFC) at the University of Maryland began communicating with the Berkeley County Public Service Sewer District (PSSD) in May of 2014, brainstorming ways to develop a program to comply with the PSSD’s Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) Phase II permit under unique and challenging circumstances. A project developed from this initial dialogue beginning in the fall of 2014, and focused on the EFC providing technical assistance to the PSSD on developing a County-scale stormwater management program with an associated financing strategy.

In 2012, Warrington Township, Pennsylvania passed a voter approved referendum committing $3 million to open space protection. The EFC worked with Warrington Township to identify ways in which the community could leverage its open space dollars to serve multiple community priorities and gain additional benefits the community had not identified.

The EFC, with funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), helped to enhance the City of Scranton's stormwater management program by analyzing fiscal practices and infrastructure management, and by identifying opportunities for implementing green infrastructure practices that would help improve water quality and reduce the flow of stormwater into the already over-burdened system.

Through funding from the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), the EFC worked with six municipalities located in Lancaster County – East Cocalico, Manheim, Warwick, and West Lampeter Townships and Lititz and Mount Joy Boroughs – to conduct a stormwater management financing feasibility study that included looking at ways in which the communities could address regulations collaboratively to reduce costs and improve their local programs.

With support from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), the EFC worked with a team led by the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay and including American Rivers to accelerate the implementation of green infrastructure in Blair County’s watersheds and continue the development of regional stormwater management opportunities.

The EFC’s work with the Northern Shenandoah Valley Regional Commission (NSVRC) focused on helping several counties in the region address new state stormwater regulations that require each jurisdiction to develop (1) a stormwater ordinance, (2) a stormwater staffing plan, and (3) a stormwater financing strategy.