The Lancaster County Municipal Stormwater Financing Feasibility Study Sharing lessons learned Monica Billig Environmental Finance Center University of Maryland CAC/LGAC Meeting December 5 th, 2013

The EFC: Who are we? Address the issue of “how to pay” by working across sectors Help local and state organizations meet environmental mandates in fiscally-sound manner

Project Background Drivers: MS4 permit compliance/enforcement Need to develop baseline stormwater program cost estimates Improve efficiency through collaboration Sponsored by the Lancaster County Clean Water Consortium Funded by the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation’s Local Government Capacity Building Initiative

Technical Analysis Methodology 1. Assess each individual stormwater program 2. Identify gaps in each existing program and evaluate future needs 3. Determine where current program fits into the desired level of service and evaluate costs 4. Develop and finalize proposed stormwater program budget 5. Develop a financing strategy to support budget Identify opportunities to collaborate COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Greatest opportunity for collaboration is through education and outreach Lessons learned early on Outreach is first step to putting long-term financing in place, projects on the ground Need to know the audience to frame message

Initial Findings Long term planning for implementing stormwater projects Access to available information & resources Relaying the importance of stormwater management to community Tracking, documentation, and record keeping Municipal staff training Limited understanding of program requirements

Most important element of study Initial assumption: Developing cost estimates Finding: Peer-to-peer exchange and information sharing Biggest challenge Initial assumption: Unknown Finding: Existing data/baselines are unknown

What makes a stormwater program successful? First hand observation reveals… Leadership Extensive targeted outreach Collaboration Sound fiscal planning

…All have in common: 1.Creativity 2.Hard work No two programs look the same…

Thank you! For further information: Monica Billig Environmental Finance Center University of Maryland