NONPOINT SOURCE

WATER POLLUTION
 Nonpoint Water Source Pollution

When it rains or when snow melts, water runs off

streets, parking lots, lawns, and agricultural fields and carries
with it pollutants such as road salt, motor oil, sediments,
fertilizer, bacteria and pesticides. These pollutants are then
carried, untreated, to the nearest stream or lake through
surface water runoff or storm sewers; or they infiltrate into
ground.
 Nonpoint Water Source Pollution
A busy place where human activities continue to
influence our environment, these activities included
farming, harvesting trees, constructing building and
roadways, mining and industrial production, and disposal
of liquid and solid waste.
These activities have led to disruptions in:
 Nonpoint Water Source Pollution
• Watershed vegetation and soils
• Increase in the amount of impervious surfaces
• Introduction of agricultural chemicals, fertilizers and animal wastes
into the watershed
• The deposition of many atmospheric pollutants in the watershed
The combination of these types of pollutants from diffuse,
widespread sources is called NONPOINT SOURCE POLLUTION.
Nonpoint Water Source Pollution
 Nonpoint Water Source Pollution
Runoff from agricultural regions typically contains
elevated concentrations of suspended solids, dissolved salts
and nutrients from fertilizers, biodegradable organic matter,
pesticides, and pathogens from animal wastes.
Runoff from silvaculture sites may also contain herbicides
that were applied to control the growth of undesirable
plants.
 Nonpoint Water Source Pollution
Urban runoff, one of the worst sources of nonpoint
source pollution, often contains high concentrations of
suspended and dissolved solids; nutrients and pesticides
from landscaped areas; toxic metals, oil and grease, and
hydrocarbons from roads; pathogens from pet wastes
and leaking septic tanks; and synthetic organics.
 Nonpoint Water Source Pollution
Water movement is the prime mode of transport for
nonpoint source pollutants, whether they are dissolved in water or
suspended in surface runoff. The concentrations of soluble
pollutants are a function of the contact time between the
pollutant and water.
• Soluble pollutants are often more concentrated in groundwater
than surface runoff, particularly in agricultural regions.
 Nonpoint Water Source Pollution

Insoluble pollutants include suspended sediments, along

with most metals, microbial pathogens, most forms of
phosphorus, and many pesticides and organics that are
insoluble in water or are physically or chemically bound to
sediment particles.