Thursday, May 10, 2018
CONTACT: Julia Robey Christian, PIO, (202) 741-0842 desk, (202) 450-7878 cell, [email protected]
DOEE’s SRC Price Lock program builds momentum for green infrastructure partnerships through enhanced private investment
WASHINGTON, DC – May 10, 2018 — This week, the Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) celebrated the completion of five large rain gardens that together have the capacity to, in a single storm, prevent more than 92,000 gallons of polluted stormwater runoff from reaching the Anacostia River. This is the latest project to incentivize green infrastructure (GI) development as part of DOEE’s Stormwater Retention Credit (SRC) program, one of the District’s innovative approaches to managing harmful stormwater. The celebration, held at the historic Mount Olivet Cemetery in northeast D.C., recognized the completion of the rain gardens as the largest voluntary SRC-generating project in the District to date.
District Stormwater LLC, in partnership with Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Washington, installed the rain gardens. District Stormwater LLC was founded by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Encourage Capital, an asset management firm based in New York, with a $1.7 million investment from Prudential Financial. DOEE’s $11.5 million dollar commitment to purchase SRCs through the SRC Price Lock Program helps to enable these innovative GI partnerships that increase the pace to restore the District’s rivers. Several additional projects are already underway; DOEE recently certified SRCs for a rain garden installed at the Progressive National Baptist Convention through a partnership with the Anacostia Waterfront Trust.
“The SRC Price Lock Program aims to catalyze green infrastructure construction in areas where untreated stormwater drains directly to District waterbodies,” said DOEE Director Tommy Wells. “Our SRC program enables developers to purchase credits in order to comply with their regulatory obligations and when developers purchase SRCs from SRC Price Lock Program participants, this shifts the developer’s funding for GI to the areas that need it most.”
SRC Price Lock Program participants can either negotiate sales on the market to sell to regulated developers or sell their SRCs to DOEE at fixed prices. The option to sell SRCs to DOEE provides investors with confidence about the revenue from an SRC-generating project enabling them to raise private capital for GI. Jon Roberts of Solvitect LLC, an SRC aggregating business, agreed, stating that “this program is a game-changer for investors who are interested in funding large-scale green infrastructure in the District. The certainty that DOEE will purchase SRCs makes it easier to fund such projects.”
Entities interested in participating may apply for up to $75,000 in technical and outreach support through DOEE’s SRC Aggregator Startup Grants Program, which helps to create partnerships between SRC aggregators and property owners. DOEE has already issued the first two SRC Aggregator Startup Grants to the Anacostia Waterfront Trust and Solvitect LLC. Additionally, property owners seeking assistance to develop a preliminary GI design may work with SRC aggregators or apply for free, direct assistance from DOEE through an SRC Site Evaluation.
For more information about these incentives or the SRC program, visit http://doee.dc.gov/src or contact Matthew Espie at [email protected] or (202) 715-7644.