Background

Over the past 25 years, the United States has made tremendous advances to clean up our nation's waterways by controlling pollution from industrial and sewage treatment plants. However, little has been done to address the effects of stormwater runoff pollution.

Stormwater runoff pollution is a leading cause of water quality problems. Nonpoint Source Pollution (NPS) is the primary reason many of our waters are still considered unfit for swimming and fishing. NPS pollution is caused by the everyday impacts of individuals interacting with the land. Each of us can contribute to this problem without even realizing it. Stormwater runoff pollution, unlike pollution from industry and sewage treatment plants, can come from a number of sources.

This type of pollution is caused by rainfall and snowmelt moving across and through the ground picking up pollutants along the way and depositing them into lakes, rivers, wetlands and our underground source of drinking water. Fortunately there are many ways in which we can all help to lower the amount of pollutants reaching our waterways and ground water.