In December 2024, the SMC’s 18 member agencies reviewed and ranked the 20 candidate research projects outlined in the SMC’s 2024-2029 Research Agenda. The SMC will consider moving forward with its highest-ranked projects in the upcoming 2025-2026 fiscal year. The four top-ranked projects, which appear in no particular order, are:

• Exfiltration from sanitary sewage conveyance systems (SMC Project 1.1): This project will further explore if sewage can exfiltrate from the sanitary sewer collection system and then enter the storm drainage system when rainfall arrives.
• Improved estimates of microbial risk associated with stormwater impacts (SMC Project 1.2): This project will build on a recently completed SMC project modeling the risk of swimming in wet-weather runoff. The project will work to identify appropriate management actions for SMC member agencies to take based on these insights.
• Meeting biological expectations in urban streams (SMC Project 2.1): This project will quantify improvements in biological condition scores for streams that result from stream restoration alone, as well as restoration in combination with improved water quality.
• Quantifying load reductions from non-structural BMPs (SMC Project 4.2): This project will quantify the effectiveness of street sweeping for reducing concentrations of contaminants in wet-weather road runoff. It builds on a recently completed SMC project that developed a scientifically defensible method for measuring street sweeping effectiveness.

To view full descriptions of each of these top-ranked projects, as well as for the remaining 16 candidate projects developed through the SMC’s research planning process, please see the SMC’s 2024-2029 Research Agenda.