Nonpoint source pollution

• Author: Jeffrey G. Miller/Ann Powers/Nancy Long Elder/Karl S. Coplan
• Pages: 957-1004

957

CHAPTER XIII:

NONPOINT SOURCE POLLUTION

A. INTRODUCTION

Although the Clean Water Act (CWA) has now been in eect for more

than 40 years, America’s waters are a long way from being clean. We have

made tremendous progress in controlling industrial a nd municipal dis-

charges, but at the 30 year mark data indicated that more than 40% of our

waters still did not meet the “shable and s wimmable” goals of the Act,

much less zero discharge. e states identied almost 300,000 miles of rivers

and stream s and more than 5 million acres of lakes that did not meet state

water quality goals, and the U.S. Environmental Protection A gency (EPA)

reported that an overwhelming majority of Americans live within 10 miles of

a polluted lake, river, stream, or coastal area. U.S. EPA, L A

2000

(2001), EPA-840-B-00-001. In 2013 EPA reported that 55% of the Nation’s

waters were in poor condition. N R   S A

2008-2009 (2013), EPA/841/D-13/001. Current information may be found

at EPA, National Summary of State Information, at https://ofmpub.epa.

gov/waters10/attains_index.control#total_assessed_waters. Most eorts over

time have focused on reducing the discharges from point sources, primarily

our factories and sewage treatment pla nts, but the bulk of contamination is

now due to more diuse and dicult to control nonpoint sources (NPS). For

example, it is estimated that as much as 90% of the nitrogen and 75% of the

phosphorus reaching the nation’s waters originates from NPS, and g ures

for other pollutants are also high. Especially troublesome are the enormous

amounts of sediments that nd their way into our streams, rivers, and lakes.

In 1991, Congress appropriated funds for the U.S. Geological Survey (Geo-

logical Survey) to begin a national water quality assessment (NAWQA) pro-

gram to evaluate trends in water quality and to understand the relationship

between human activities and water quality. e program, which examined

water quality in more than 50 major river basins and aquifer systems, issued

its rst report in 1999, focusing on nutrients and pesticides. U.S. G

S, T Q  O N’ W, N,  P-

, C N. 1225 (1999). e ndings indicated that in areas where

there is signicant agricultural or urban development, the streams and ground-

water almost always contain complex mixtures of nutrients and pesticides. Id.

958 Water Pollution Control, 2d Edition

At least one pesticide was found in almost every water and sh sample collected

from streams and in more than one-half of shallow wells sampled in agricultural

and urban areas. Id. at 6. While pollutant levels were generally below federal

drinking water standards, those standards do not usually take into account the

accumulative or synergistic impact of multiple chemicals, nor are they always

based on a thorough analysis of the full range of potential health impacts.

Further, the impact on aquatic organisms is not a factor in establishing the

standards, and aquatic organisms may be more aected by these contaminants

than humans. Findings from the rst decade of the NAWQA program (1991-

2001) produced some of the most comprehensive water quality data to date.

Nevertheless, because water quality varies signicantly from season to season

and from year to year, properly tracking uctuations in water quality requires

further long-term monitoring. U.S. G S, W Q

  N’ S  A—O  S F-

, 1999-2001, C N. 1265, at 16 (2004). Fortunately, NAWQA’s

second cycle of studies (2002-2012) built upon initial assessments and provide

additional data for many of its previous study sites.

While we might suppose that streams in agricultural areas would likely

have the highest concentrations of pesticides, the ndings showed that insec-

ticides were present more frequently and in hig her concentrations in urban

than in agricultural streams. U.S. G S, T Q  

O N’ W, N,   P

,

at 10. Although lev-

els of contamination in aquifers were somewhat lower tha n in the streams

that were sampled, there is still cause for concern there. Groundwater is the

source of drinking water for more t han one-half of the nation, and once

polluted is extremely dicult, if not impossible, to clean up. Additionally,

groundwater and surface water are connected, thus polluted groundwater

can carr y contamination to the surface waters to which it discharges.

Diuse runo may occur in urba n and suburban a reas, or be related to

activities such as farming, forestry, a nd mining. It often carries substantial

amounts of sediment and other pollutant loads. For example, EPA’s national

urban runo progra m showed that stormwater runo from city streets con-

tained toxins and heav y metals at surprising ly high concentrations. U.S.

EPA, R   N U R P  (1983). is

was especially tr ue during the rst few minutes of a rainstorm, referred to as

the “rst ush.” ese contaminants —including oil, gas, a nd other residues

from automobiles a nd truck s, emissions from home and industrial heating

plants, chemical spills, even animal feces —come from all of the activities in

which we engage. e toxic nature of NPS discharges led one environmental

Nonpoint Source Pollution 959

group to characterize it a s “poison runo.” P T  ., N-

 R  D C, P R (1989).

Other studies have emphasized the devastating impact of NPS pollution

on our nation’s coastal waters, and in turn on the health of our oceans. In a

report issued in 2003, the PEW Ocea ns Commission concluded that nitro-

gen runo is “[t]he greatest pollution threat to coa stal marine life today.”

PEW O  C’, A R   N : R

  N O P 2 (2003). Oil runo is another substantial source

of coastal waters a nd ocean degradation. e National Academy of Sciences

estimated that the oil runo ultimately ending up in our oceans is equiva-

lent to an Exxon Valdez oil spill (nearly 11 million gallons of oil) every eight

months. Id. at 4. In September 20 04, the U.S. Commission on Ocea n Pol-

icy released its own ocean policy report which, in part, served to reinforce

the nding that NPS is one of the most signicant contributory factors to

our oceans’ degraded health. U.S. C’  O  P, A O 

B   21 C (2004). Unfortunately, the situation has

not changed.

In spite of t he severity of contamination from diuse sources, the CWA

does not adequately address this issue nor do many of our other pollution

control laws.

is diuse nature of NPS pollution leads to substantial problems in try-

ing to impose regulatory controls. Simply identifying the locus of N PS pol-

lution and quantifying its amount can be a challenge and is complicated by

the fact that some polluting runo occurs naturally. Additionally, the relative

percentage of natura l (as opposed to man-made) runo can vary accord-

ing to season a nd weather condition, further compounding the problem. In

addition to the practica l problems, political opposition to NPS controls can

also be a severe stumbling block to eective regulation. NPS controls often

involve restrictions on the use of land or methods of operation, and the polit-

ical will to implement such measures may be lack ing.

B. THE CLEAN WATER ACT

Section 502(14) of the C WA denes the term “point source” in some

detail, and only point sources are subject to t he national pollutant discharge

elimination system (NPDES) permit program. For the many sources of pol-

lution that fall outside the statutory denition we typically use the rather

awkward “nonpoint source.”