Beginning in 2003, federal stormwater guidelines and regulations pushed state and local governments to address the harmful effects of unmanaged runoff, including pollution, erosion, flooding, and the loss and disturbance of wetlands. In response, officials from Wilson County, Lebanon, and Mt. Juliet worked together to pool resources, creating the Wilson County Water Group to meet Environmental Protection Agency requirements, educate the public, and develop shared guidelines and philosophy. Seeking a place for experiential learning where professionals and the public could see stormwater technologies in use year-round, they chose the Fairgrounds at James F. Ward Agricultural Center as a learning lab. Early demonstration features included a low impact design area with a porous concrete sidewalk in Fiddlers Grove, a nearby rain garden to manage ponding, rain barrels installed on a historic building to harvest water and reduce flooding, and armored grass used to repair a muddy driveway. Since 2006, thousands have attended regular demonstration seminars there, and the site has hosted environmental affairs programs, construction demonstrations, state-sponsored certifications, and the Think Green Think Clean Clean Up and Recycle Fair, where more than 1,000 students collected over 10.5 tons of trash in 2012 alone. As the project expanded, colleges, universities, state and federal agencies, nongovernmental associations, and private partners joined in providing expertise, funding, and labor, while the project continued to look ahead to more demonstrations, technology, community classes, and college connections.