Rachel Beebe is a Sustainability Project Manager in Howard County Government. In this role, she manages the residential stormwater programs, as well as some outreach and education programs. She is the Mitigation Co-Chair for the Maryland Association of Floodplain and Stormwater Managers, on the Advisory Committee of the Watershed Stewards Academy, and is involved with many other community groups.

The Howard County Office of Community Sustainability has begun to implement a pilot program, CleanScapes Communities, with new features to encourage Best Management Practice (BMP) implementation across a broader segment of its residential population. OCS has received high levels of interest from County residents in the geographic pilot area. This program minimizes barriers to entry, especially financial and technical, to residents who might have been deterred from participating in the County’s existing residential program, CleanScapes. Thanks to a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), the County is able this program to low-income residents free of charge; according to market research, low-income populations are very unlikely to install stormwater BMPs. The geographic pilot area was carefully selected to provide the highest chance of success to the pilot, so that the methodology of the program could be more accurately tested without interference from other factors.

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