Nonprofit Watershed Protection Partnership

Nonprofits are eligible for the Nonprofit Watershed Protection Partnership which is designed to alleviate hefty stormwater fees. Once you complete a partnership agreement with the County, the County can conduct site assessments to provide on-site stormwater treatment opportunities to the Maximum Extent Practicable (MEP), which may be less than 100 percent of the total site's stormwater treatment needs given space limitations. The property owner agrees to implement identified practices and then 100% of the Watershed Protection Fee is credited to the owner. HOA’s are NOT eligible to become a partner but may apply for the Community Stormwater Partnership grant. Joining the partnership is easy and at no cost to nonprofits. Please note that this partnership is only for nonprofits. 

The deadline for completion of the Partnership Agreement is February 1 of each year to receive a 100% credit to the July 1 Fee of that same year.  Agreements accepted after February 1 will be applied to the following year's bill and not retroactively awarded to past bills.

Update your Contact Information

IF YOU ARE AN EXISTING PARTNER, UPDATE YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION HERE:

please update your contact information here so that your nonprofit can know of future opportunities for installing best management practices, planting trees, and more. Thank you!

How to join the Nonprofit Watershed Protection Partnership

• Step 1: Complete a Partnership Agreement (after this point, a 100 percent credit to the fee is awarded for future billings contingent on implementation of the BMPs.  The credit is not awarded retroactively to past payments.  You only need to apply to the Partnership once, it automatically renews each year as long as you are complying with the Partnership Agreement.).
• Step 2: The County (or its consultant) conducts a site assessment.
• Step 3: The County and the nonprofit agree to on-site practices that will meet the maximum extent practicable (MEP), based on site assessment. (This is the last opportunity for a nonprofit to withdraw from the partnership. If they withdraw, the fee will resume at the next billing cycle.)
• Step 4: The County and the nonprofit sign a Scope of Work that outlines the implementation and maintenance of the practices to be installed.
• Step 5: The practices are installed on the nonprofit property (solidifying their partnership and the 100 percent credit to the fee). 
• Step 6: The County verifies that the practices are functioning as intended while the nonprofit oversees maintenance. Every three years the nonprofit will submit documentation to the County, confiming the practices are still functioning as intended, with the option for a County site visit to confirm.

The County may work with nonprofit prop­erty own­ers to assist in the cost of imple­ment­ing the iden­ti­fied stormwa­ter man­age­ment practices.

If a nonprofit orga­ni­za­tion does not agree to an MOU, or later opts out of the part­ner­ship, then the Water­shed Pro­tec­tion Fee will be cal­cu­lated at the non-residential/commercial rate described above. Should a nonprofit orga­ni­za­tion with­out an MOU install stormwa­ter con­trol prac­tices, they can be cred­ited at the percent equivalent to the imper­vi­ous square footage treated to current standards under commercial property credit guidelines.

Trees for Bees 

Nonprofit Watershed Protection Partners are eligible to participate in Howard County's annual Trees for Bees program. Nonprofits are eligible to receive up to 50 native trees and shrubs for their property. 

2024 Trees for Bees Timeline: 

March 11th – Registration opens for Nonprofit Watershed Protection Partners (*Applies to those that have not registered for trees for Bees in previous years)
March 17th – Registration closes
March 18th – Sign up opens
March 25th – Sign up closes

April 13th - Greenfest and tree pick up