The Clean Water Act has led to tremendous success in removing pollution in the nation’s waterways from point sources. However, nonpoint source pollution remains a major problem. As defined by the Clean Water Act, a point source is “any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance…from which pollutants are or may be discharged,” including pipes, ditches, tunnels, and wells. Industrial and sewage treatment plants represent the largest sources of point source discharges. Nonpoint source pollution, as the name suggests, refers to more diffuse sources of pollution— primarily pollution from runoff. As stormwater and snowmelt move over the ground, they pick up fertilizers, oil, grease, pesticides, bacteria from pet waste, and many other types of pollutants and deposit them into receiving waterways. This type of water quality impairment is more difficult to address than that from point sources due to its expansive nature, and thus remains one of the main sources of pollution today.
Keywords: stormwater, pollution, non-point source pollution, green infrastructure, bioremediators, sediment