Regional stormwater center forges connections, shares best practices across five Southwestern states

A regional knowledge center co-led by SCCWRP has begun sharing best-practices stormwater management approaches and forging connections among siloed stakeholders across the U.S. Southwest in recent months – including fielding more than a dozen requests for support from five states.

Since hosting an inaugural workshop in June to set its strategic directions, the Southwest Stormwater Center (SWSC) has been asked to provide the latest research and guidance on topics ranging from how to design performance monitoring networks for stormwater BMPs (best management practices) to where to find data to support runoff management modeling tools. The Center has met with regulators, stormwater discharge permittee groups and departments of transportation, among others; SCCWRP alone has been asked to give five formal presentations on specific topics.

The Center, which is co-led by SCCWRP and the Desert Research Institute in Nevada, was established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to serve Southern California, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico; it focuses on bridging gaps between isolated but regionally relevant information sources by synthesizing, harmonizing, consolidating and sharing technical knowledge, tools, and resources across five topic areas: BMP design and assessment, stormwater planning, stormwater capture and use, funding and financing, and stakeholder engagement.

The Center intends to develop and publish regionally relevant resources to its website.