Critical to preserving our increasingly scarce sources of freshwater is minimizing the pollution of rivers and streams, lakes and reservoirs, estuaries, wetlands, and groundwater. According to the EPA, these precious water resources are continuously contaminated by the following array of pollutants:  

• nutrients from sewage and fertilizers
• suspended solids
• pathogens
• organic material 
• metals and toxic organic chemicals
• pesticides and herbicides
• other contaminants such as salts, acids, oil, and grease

Nonpoint sources (NPS), however, are much more difficult to identify, and deliver the vast majority of pollutants to bodies of water. Nonpoint sources include atmospheric deposition,  contaminated sediments, and land practices that generate polluted runoff such as agriculture, logging, onsite sewage disposal, and municipal stormwater management.   

(See EPA's fact sheet "Nonpoint Source Pollution: The Nation's Largest Water Quality Problem")

This section introduces key resources and information to assist your community in preventing nonpoint source (NPS) water pollution.  

Primary Links and Contacts  

The Clean Water Action Plan website of the federal government contains the contents of the Clean Water Action Plan, reports on its implementation, and provides other resources devoted to restoring and protecting America's waters. The Unified Federal Policy for a Watershed Approach to Federal Land and Resource Management is also posted.

EPA’s Office of Water is responsible for coordinating the agency’s water quality activities, including the implementation of the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. The Office develops national programs, technical policies and regulations for drinking and ground water control. Additionally, the Office enforces pollution source standards. The Office of Water conducts a Nonpoint Source Pollution Control Program to coordinate information and education on preventing non-point source water pollution. The program provides basic information on NPS pollution, strategies for pollution prevention, a list-serve, and links to other NPS sites. The WATERS (Watershed Assessment, Tracking and Environmental ResultS) program provides water quality inventory reports for states and EPA regions.

EPA's Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds (OWOW) combines the EPA’s responsibilities for abating nonpoint source pollution; restoring and protecting wetlands, lakes, rivers, coastal and marine environments; and providing leadership for surface water monitoring and water quality assessment activities at the watershed level.  

Non-point Education for Municipal Officials (NEMO) is a University of Connecticut Cooperative Extension System project using innovative techniques to teach local officials about the sources and impacts of non-point source pollution, how different land uses affect water quality, and what towns can do to protect water quality. The unique educational approach of the project is to use geographic information system (GIS) technology to simplify and explain the complex relationship between land use and natural resource protection.  

Surf Your Watershed is an on-line EPA service to help you locate, use, and share environmental information on your watershed or community.  

The Texas Nonpoint Sourcebook provides stormwater management information to stormwater management officials and other interested parties in Texas.

Water Education Foundation offers a series of Water Awareness brochures and slide cards describing clean water practices for numerous industries and activities.

The Water Environment Federation (WEF) is a not-for profit technical and educational organization working to preserve and enhance the global water environment. Federation members number more than 41,000 water quality professionals and specialists from around the world, including engineers, scientists, government officials, utility and industrial managers and operators, academics, educators and students, equipment manufacturers and distributors, and other environmental specialists.   

The Water Quality Information Center is a service of the National Agricultural Library, Agricultural Research Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture, in cooperation with the University of Maryland, providing access to information related to water resources and agriculture. The center collects, organizes, and communicates the scientific findings, educational methodologies, and public policy issues related to water quality and agriculture. The center's activities involve three areas: communications, library resources, and special projects.   

The National Institutes for Water Resources is a network of Research Institutes in every state. They conduct basic and applied research to solve water problems unique to their area. See the Directory of Water Resources Research Institutes for the Institute in your state.  

The Chesapeake Bay Program offers a database of Environmentally Sensitive Design Practices that provides information aimed at protecting the Bay and its local watersheds, but with references that are applicable in protecting water quality in other locations, as well. Topics addressed include aquatic buffers, stormwater management, erosion and sediment control, and land use planning.

On-line Articles and Publications  

Protecting Water Resources with Smart Growth
U.S. EPA offers this publication with examples of 75 policies designed to protect water resources and implement smart growth, some for implementation at the watershed level and others targeted for specific development sites.

Running Pure
A study by the World Bank/WWF Alliance for Forest Conservation and Sustainable Use concludes that major cities should protect forest areas that naturally purify water and provide high quality drinking water for urban populations. In addition to providing substantial health benefits for urban inhabitants, forest protection strategies are much more cost-effective than building and operating water treatment plants. (PDF 1.37MB)

Water Quality: A Report of Progress  
Summarizes USDA achievements for developing the scientific, educational, technical and financial assistance, data base, and evaluation needed to enhance and maintain the quality of our Nation's water resources.  

EPA's Catalog of Federal Funding Sources for Watershed Protection  
Highlights Federal grants and loans that may be used at the local level to support watershed projects, and contains references to many of the other good publications and web sites on funding and technical assistance.  

Section 319 of the Clean Water Act
The statutory language, final reports and success stories compiled under the section 319 Nonpoint Source Management Program amendments of 1987.

NonPoint Source Pollution Pointers
EPA's Office of Water provides eleven online fact sheets on solutions to specific nonpoint source pollution concerns.  

Protecting Drinking Water: A Workbook for Tribes
This step-by-step action plan for tribes to use in developing their own plans to protect surface and groundwater from pollution was developed for EPA by the Water Education Foundation, and can be downloaded in WordPerfect format from their website.

Nonpoint Source News-Notes
Back issues of this occasional bulletin produced by the Terrene Institute under an EPA Cooperative Agreement are available online.

Planning and Managing a Successful Nonpoint Source Pollution Control Project  
Guidance from the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service Rural Clean Water Program on how to choose, initiate, and carry out a project.

Example Photographs of Best Management Practices (BMP's) for Non-point Source Water Pollution
Captioned photos from the EPA Office of Water, illustrating specific management practices.  

Watershed Protection: A Statewide Approach
An EPA report outlining a pollution prevention approach based on watershed-level integrated solutions.  

Citizen’s Guide to Ground-Water Protection 
A 1999 update of an EPA publication, with basic information on groundwater, major sources of groundwater contamination, and how to protect groundwater quality. 

Ground Water & Drinking Water Publications  
A comprehensive list of publications from EPA's Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water, in numerous categories related to water quality. Many of the publications listed are available online. Single copies are available free of charge, and ordering instructions are provided.

Systems of Best Management Practices for Controlling Agricultural Nonpoint Source Pollution   
A Rural Clean Water Program Technology Transfer Fact Sheet.

Drain it Right: Wetlands for Managing Runoff (August, 2001)
A continuing education featue in Architectural Record explores the role that constructed wetlands can play in managing stormwater runoff. Includes a case study and description of natural wetland stormwater treatment. (Free registration is required to access this article.)

University Non-Point Source Programs   

The North Carolina State University (NCSU) Water Quality Group is a multidisciplinary team that analyzes and conducts natural resource management programs with an emphasis on non-point source pollution policy, assessment, and control technologies.  

Purdue University Extension Water Quality Website includes the National Water Quality Database, an online information management tool for locating water quality and waste management educational resources created by the 50 State Cooperative Extension Services. This computer-based information is available by computer search using several different network tools. The database includes more than 2,600 citations and nearly 1,000 full-text documents.  

University of Wisconsin’s Farm*A*Syst and Home*A*Syst programs are a partnership between government and private business that enables individuals to voluntarily prevent pollution on farms, ranches, and homes using confidential environmental assessments. Provides a directory of statewide programs within the national network.  

Model Water Pollution Prevention Programs  

The Alameda Countywide (California) Clean Water Program is a consortium of Alameda County and its 14 city governments to prevent urban runoff from becoming polluted in order to restore the health of the creeks and the San Francisco Bay.  

The Puget Sound Water Quality Action Team brings together the heads of ten state agencies, a city and a county representative to lead and coordinate efforts to protect the water quality in Washington’s Puget Sound. In Seattle, the City's Natural Drainage Systems (NDS) mitigate the impact of urban storwater runoff on area surface water by redesigning residential streets to have less pavement, replacing traditional pipes and vaults with a living infrastructure of plants, trees and deep, healthy soil, which absorb storm water and filter pollutants.

Phosphorus Lawn Fertilizer Ordinances were passed by Shorewood, Minnesota, and Plymouth, Minnesota in 2002, in order to limit algae growth and consequent degradation of lake and river quality. State legislation restricts the use of phosphorus in lawn fertilizer to 0% in the 7-county metro area and 3% in the other 80 Minnesota counties.

Last updated: November 4, 2004

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