As of the end of the SMC’s 2019-2024 research planning cycle in June, the SMC had completed four high-priority projects:

• Built the SMC’s Regional BMP Monitoring Network to measure the performance effectiveness of BMPs across Southern California
• Determined the inflection point at which concentrations of the fecal contamination marker HF183 begin to represent a risk to public health (results to be published in the coming months in a peer-reviewed journal)
• Developed a prototype data visualization tool to streamline annual compliance reporting of stormwater data
• Conducted a laboratory intercalibration exercise to evaluate environmental laboratories’ accuracy, precision and comparability when  measuring chemical contaminants in wet- and dry-weather runoff

Also during the 2019-2024 research planning cycle, the SMC initiated four other projects, all of which are nearing completion:

• Determining if routine street sweeping – a type of nonstructural BMP – can result in a measurable reduction in contaminants in runoff
• Identifying stressors responsible for biological degradation in modified streams, and investigating ways to improve the health of these streams
• Characterizing the mechanistic inner processes by which biofiltration BMPs remove stormwater pollutants
• Completing the third cycle of the SMC’s cyclical Regional Watershed Monitoring Program (2021-2025)

For more information about projects from the SMC’s 2019-2024 Research Agenda, please read the feature article in the SMC’s 2023-2024 Annual Report.