Nonpoint source pollution
Nonpoint source (NPS) pollution refers to diffuse contamination (or pollution) of water or air that does not originate from a single discrete source.
- Nonpoint source pollution92 related topics
Water pollution
Contamination of water bodies, usually as a result of human activities, so that it negatively affects its uses.
Sources of water pollution are either point sources or non-point sources.
Pollution
Introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change.
Pollution is often classed as point source or nonpoint source pollution.
Urban runoff
Surface runoff of rainwater, landscape irrigation, and car washing created by urbanization.
Eroding soils or poorly maintained construction sites can often lead to increased sedimentation in runoff.
Eutrophication
Process by which an entire body of water, or parts of it, becomes progressively enriched with minerals and nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus.
Approaches for prevention and reversal of eutrophication include: minimizing point source pollution from sewage, and minimizing nutrient pollution from agriculture and other nonpoint pollution sources.
Surface runoff
Flow of water occurring on the ground surface when excess rainwater, stormwater, meltwater, or other sources, can no longer sufficiently rapidly infiltrate in the soil.
Runoff that occurs on the ground surface before reaching a channel can be a nonpoint source of pollution, as it can carry man-made contaminants or natural forms of pollution (such as rotting leaves).
Stormwater
Water that originates from precipitation , including heavy rain and meltwater from hail and snow.
Agricultural runoff (except for concentrated animal feeding operations, or "CAFO") is classified as nonpoint source pollution under the CWA.
Erosion control
Practice of preventing or controlling wind or water erosion in agriculture, land development, coastal areas, river banks and construction.
By the 1970s the models had expanded to complex computer models addressing nonpoint source pollution with thousands of lines of computer code.
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon
Hydrocarbon—a chemical compound containing only carbon and hydrogen—that is composed of multiple aromatic rings.
PAHs typically disperse from urban and suburban non-point sources through road runoff, sewage, and atmospheric circulation and subsequent deposition of particulate air pollution.
Clean Water Act
Primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution.
Such sources were therefore considered to be nonpoint sources that were not subject to the permit program.
Agriculture
Practice of cultivating plants and livestock.
These nutrients are major nonpoint pollutants contributing to eutrophication of aquatic ecosystems and pollution of groundwater, with harmful effects on human populations.