Analyzing Nonpoint Source Water Pollution Problems

Nonpoint-source pollution (NPSP) poses a special challenge to society's ability to manage its collective environmental good - especially surface and groundwater quality. Since there is no `point', such as an outfall pipe, from which the pollution is being discharged and can be measured, pollution can reach the ambient environment without being monitored. Since management of air and water polution requires the definition and enforcement of limits on discharges or the imposition of fees on those discharges, inability to measure limits our ability to manage this environmental problem. This book presents a state-of-the-art review and discussion of economists' efforts to resolve this major problem and attempts to provide a way of working around it. The book sets forth the theoretical issues, modeling, and the actual programs set up to confront this issue.

In April 1992 the Foundation Eni Enrico Mattei organized a workshop on the regulation of nonpoint source pollution. This volume inc1udes the proceedings of that meeting, as well as additional original contributions, in an attempt to provide an overview of recent theoretical developments in the field. Research on the causes, consequences, and control of nonpoint source pol lution has been carried out over the last two decades. Interest in this subject has grown as a result of the increasing recognition of the insufficiency of traditional pollution control policies focused on the large scale, confined, and general ly predictable pollutant discharges. In fact, many contemporary problems are caused by the combined activities of small polluters, along with natural pro cesses, intermittent and unpredictable events, and often involve pollutants with complex environmental outcomes. Despite the progress made in understanding the nature and size of pollution from diffuse sources, the issue of regulation is still far from being system at ically and adequately addressed. This policy vacuum is partly attributable to the difficulty of adapting the traditional point source regulatory tool kit to the specific features of nonpoint source problems. Such features inc1ude the tech nical difficulty of identifying sources and measuring individual emissions, their variability over time and space, the role played by natural processes in detennin ing pollutant discharges at source and their ultimate impacts on the receiving environmental media.

Citizens can play an important role in helping their states develop pollution control programs and spurring effective efforts to deal with nonpoint-source pollution. This guide takes the reader step-by-step through the process that states must follow to comply with water quality legislation relevant to nonpoint-source pollution. Part I provides background on nonpoint-source pollution. Parts II, III, and IV describe in detail the nonpoint-planning process. Chapter titles are: (1) "Introduction: An Opportunity for Citizen Action"; (2) "A Different Kind of Pollution"; (3) "Identifying Water-Quality Problems"; (4) "Identifying Sources of Nonpoint Pollution"; (5) "Selecting Best Management Practices"; (6) "Establishing Institutional Mechanisms"; (7) "Drawing Up an Implementation Schedule"; and (7) "Monitoring Implementation and Enforcement." References are provided at the end of each chapter. Appendices contain: (1) a listing of offices of the Environmental Protection Agency and states within each EPA region; (2) state water pollution control agencies; (3) nonpoint-source provisions in the Water Quality Act of 1987; (4) report of the Conference Committee, U.S. House of Representatives pertaining to management of nonpoint sources of pollution; (5) state water resources research institutes; (6) major nonpoint-source pollution categories and subcategories; and (7) agricultural chemicals for which EPA has recommended water quality criteria. (LZ)