NonPoint Water-Pollution

What must be understood first of all about nonpoint water pollution sources is that an unambiguous definition of the phenomena is difficult to pin down, and ambiguity is embedded in the term itself. To see why, begin with the concept of water pollution that comes from specific sources--say, an oil spill from a tanker. The tanker is the definite point from which the water is contaminated, and there is a relatively substantial history of regulatory and legal response to such pollution, notably with the Clean Water Act of 1972 (Silverstein, 1994).

Nonpoint sources of pollution, on the other hand, may generally be identified only in a relatively indeterminate way. Typically, pollution sources of this type are linked to farming practices, whereby chemically treated water may drain into rivers and other natural water sites; run-off from storms; disposal of sewage; methods of building construction; and oil-change and other waste from citizen vehicles, including boats. While some or all of these sources of pollution may affect water purity, identifying the reach o

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(Schilling & Wolter, 2001). That challenge is important because, ostensibly, the 1972 Clean Water Act, as amended, mandates the method by which the assimilation of pollutant loads in a given body of water can be calculated (U.S. EPA, 1991). The 1987 amendment to CWA included a section titled Nonpoint Source Management Program (Section 319), and put virtually all nonpoint sources of pollution under the rubric "polluted runoff." Section 319 offered states, territories, and Native American tribes the incentive of grants and technical assistance in developing projects aimed at alleviating nonpoint source pollution (Ribuado, 1998). The trouble was, the provision did not anticipate the fact that, so to speak, all pollution is local, and local perceptions may shape policy and funding priorities. Or, as Greco (2003, p. 25) puts it: "water runoff does not furnish the powerful images that might energize environmentally minded citizens." Depending on geography, local bodies of water have unique properties that may resist uniform methodologies. Indeed, the TMDL, or total maximum daily load, provisions of the original act were "inactive" until the 1990s because of the technical problems associated with implementing TMDL calculation mandates (H
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