Effectiveness Studies

Next subgroup meeting: SAM Study Selection Subgroup will meet in January 2023 to discuss RFP package for Round 4 study solicitation. For more information contact Amy Waterman.

Status update:  More than 20 SAM effectiveness studies are in various stages of contracting though completion. SAM staff will be getting the last of the approved third round of studies under contract later this year. 

Contract scopes of work and key deliverables for all of the projects, and fact sheets describing findings of completed studies, can be found at the SAM webpage.

Background: SWG formed this subgroup in October 2010 and assigned it the task to define and clarify the criteria and process for selecting effectiveness studies that will be conducted using the funds from the NPDES municipal stormwater permittees. The subgroup compiled and evaluated ideas from permittees and others before ranking study topics and questions. The process to develop study designs was completed in the first half of 2014 and resulted in a final list of ten studies for the first round of implementation. The permittees voted to rank the studies in advance of SWG final approval. Similar second and third round study selection processes in 2016-2017 and 2020 identified fifteen more studies for SAM to conduct. 

Where did the lists of priority questions come from for earlier solicitation rounds?  170+ ideas/topics/questions for regional effectiveness studies were submitted through April 2011 for consideration to be conducted with pooled resources of permittees. The subgroup compiled, organized, evaluated, ranked, edited, and recompiled the ideas into a list of 22 topics and associated questions that was submitted to Ecology in September 2011. The evaluation and ranking criteria are posted with the ranked list of study topics and questions. A literature review was done in 2012. The subgroup oversaw work to synthesize and communicate the findings of the literature review. The six topical white papers published in April 2013 informed further updates to the list which SWG discussed. The list SWG approved in June 2013 was used as the basis for the request for proposals in 2014 and with minor updates in 2016.  Further updates are made for each subsequent round of study solicitation, and stormwater managers are encouraged to pose new questions.

For Round 4, the topic list, which has not been approved yet, has been developed from 6PPD Subgroup recommendations, Round 3 topics that have not been funded, Ad Hoc White Papers,  Structural Stormwater Control Science Review and Synthesis Project, and recommendations from the SAM Study Selection Subgroup. This list is being reviewed by subgroups and caucuses and will be voted on at the November 16 SWG meeting.