EPA Research Partner Support Story: Monitoring the Performance of Stormwater Best Management Practices
Partner: Southern California Stormwater Monitoring Coalition (SMC), Southern California Coastal Water Research Project
Challenge: Developing a consistent methodology to monitor and report the performance of stormwater best management practices
Resource: Technical support on reliable stormwater management monitoring practices that can be cost-effectively applied in semiarid climates
Project Period: 2020 – Present
Stormwater best management practices (BMPs) help communities manage water runoff and reduce pollution in stormwater. Southern California receives few rain events during a typical year, which means that collecting data to evaluate how well stormwater BMPs achieve water quality goals is extremely challenging. BMPs include infrastructure to treat a wide range of contaminants in stormwater linked to human health (e.g., pathogens and bacteria) and ecosystem health (e.g., nutrients that contribute to eutrophication and heavy metals that are toxic to aquatic organisms). The Southern California Stormwater Monitoring Coalition is collecting stormwater management data from several southern California stormwater management agencies, including monitoring results for performance and maintenance costs, to develop best practices for stormwater management that can be shared among communities in the region.
"ORD has provided ongoing support for multiple Stormwater Monitoring Coalition projects for over 10 years. The technical expertise, practical experience, and perspectives from around the country that they provide have been invaluable to the SMC research portfolio. In particular, support for the SMC BMP Regional Monitoring Network contributes to generating scientific consensus on best practices for monitoring and data analysis, helping us to create perhaps one of the largest coordinated BMP monitoring programs in the country poised for meaningful regional impact on stormwater management technologies.” – Southern California Coastal Water Research Project Deputy Director and Stormwater Monitoring Coalition Treasurer Kenneth Schiff
EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) partnered with the Coalition to share expertise on establishing minimum descriptors, measurement methods, sampling strategies, and quality assurance practices for stormwater BMPs, which are essential for eliciting robust conclusions from empirical field-based research.
This effort resulted in regionally specific best practices for stormwater quality treatment including design features that will benefit future applications and installations. The effort will support developing data-informed BMP maintenance activities, which are critical to developing realistic and cost-effective management plans for maintaining stormwater pipes, treatment facilities, monitoring equipment, and other infrastructure components.