Nonpoint Source Water Pollution

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)

Water pollution control has been a top environmental policy priority of the world’s most developed countries for decades, and the focus of significant regulation and public and private spending. Yet, significant water quality problems remain, and trends for some pollutants are in the wrong direction. This book addresses the economics of water pollution control and water pollution control policy in agriculture, with an aim towards providing students, environmental policy analysts, and other environmental professionals with economic concepts and tools essential to understanding the problem and crafting solutions that can be effective and efficient. The book will also examine existing policies and proposed reforms in the developed world. Although this book addresses and has a general applicability to major water pollutants from agriculture (e.g., pesticides, pharmaceuticals, sediments, nutrients), it will focus on the sediment and nutrient pollution problem. The economic and scientific foundations for pollution management are best developed for these pollutants, and they are currently the top priorities of policy makers. Accordingly, the authors provide both highly salient and informative cases for developing concepts and methods of general applicability, with high profile examples such as the Chesapeake Bay, Lake Erie, and the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone in the US; the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe; and Lake Taupo in New Zealand.

In 1997, New York City adopted a mammoth watershed agreement to protect its drinking water and avoid filtration of its large upstate surface water supply. Shortly thereafter, the NRC began an analysis of the agreement's scientific validity. The resulting book finds New York City's watershed agreement to be a good template for proactive watershed management that, if properly implemented, will maintain high water quality. However, it cautions that the agreement is not a guarantee of permanent filtration avoidance because of changing regulations, uncertainties regarding pollution sources, advances in treatment technologies, and natural variations in watershed conditions. The book recommends that New York City place its highest priority on pathogenic microorganisms in the watershed and direct its resources toward improving methods for detecting pathogens, understanding pathogen transport and fate, and demonstrating that best management practices will remove pathogens. Other recommendations, which are broadly applicable to surface water supplies across the country, target buffer zones, stormwater management, water quality monitoring, and effluent trading.

"GAO reviewed overall efforts to controll nonpoint sources of pollution and concluded that progress has been minimal ... The Environmental Protection Agency should do more to plan solutions to nonpoint sources of water pollution ... The Agency agrees that a greater nonpoint source control effort at the Federal, State, and local level is needed. It believes, however, that the present program structure is the best possible, considering the various program constraints."--Page i-iii.

If you work in the water quality management field, you know the challenges of monitoring and controlling pollutants in our water supply. The increasing problem of agricultural nonpoint source pollution requires complex solutions. Agricultural Nonpoint Source Pollution: Watershed Management and Hydrology covers the latest techniques and methods of managing large watershed areas, with an emphasis on controlling non-point source pollution, especially from agricultural run-off. Written by leading experts, the book includes topics such as: nitrate and phosphorus pollution, pesticide contamination, erosion and sedimentation, water-table management, and watershed management. The authors discuss the effects of agricultural run-off - one of the most intransigent problems now faced by environmental engineers and hydrologists. They explore each issue with an eye towards the integrated management of water quality and water resources over a defined area or region. This single-source reference gives you a complete understanding of the whats, whys, and hows of nonpoint source pollution - and more importantly of how to monitor and manage it. Agricultural Nonpoint Source Pollution: Watershed Management and Hydrology provides a broad but detailed overview that helps you to comprehend the intricacies of the problem and puts you on the path to finding the answers.