Regional BMP monitoring program adds monitoring sites in second year of BMP performance monitoring

The Southern California Stormwater Monitoring Coalition (SMC) has expanded the number of structural BMPs where field teams are collecting data on the performance of structural stormwater BMPs as the SMC begins its second year of BMP performance monitoring.

Field teams are collecting water-quality and maintenance data from up to 11 BMPs across Southern California during the 2023-2024 wet-weather season. During the first year of field sampling in 2022-2023, the SMC collected BMP performance data from seven BMPs across five locations.

For Year 2, California Sea Grant and the Ocean Protection Council are partnering with the SMC to add microplastics to the network’s suite of pollutants being monitored to evaluate the effectiveness of structural BMPs at removing a range of pollutants in runoff.

The SMC also has agreed to continue BMP monitoring for an additional five years to help address significant, persistent knowledge gaps in managers’ understanding of how to optimize the performance, operation and maintenance of structural stormwater BMPs.