Types of Nonpoint Source Pollution (NPS):
• Construction Activities
• Agriculture
• Abandoned Mine Drainage
• Waste Disposal
Construction Activities
Erosion is the natural process by which the land is worn away (soil transported) by water, wind, or chemical action. Accelerated erosion occurs when human and natural processes remove the earth’s surface faster than would occur by nature alone.
Large scale earth disturbance activities remove vegetation from the earth’s surface, exposing the soil
Why are plants and vegetation important?
• break the impact of raindrops which
• loosen soil
• slow the flow of water over land (runoff)
• their roots hold soil particles together
Agriculture
There are 3,116 miles of streams in Pennsylvania that are impacted by agriculture.
Agricultural materials such as manure, fertilizers, sediment (eroded soil particles), and pesticides can be transported into streams during periods of rainfall and snowmelt.
Livestock with free access to streams may damage streambanks, initiating erosion.
Sediment in waterways smothers aquatic habitat and damages breathing structures of aquatic organisms.
Manure and fertilizers are toxic to aquatic life and deplete available oxygen in the stream.
Abandoned Mine Drainage (AMD)
What are the problems:
• Lowers the pH – becomes more acidic
• Toxic concentrations of dissolved metals (iron, aluminum, and manganese)
• Associated chemical reactions reduce the dissolved oxygen in streams
• Orange solids settle on stream bottom, suffocating stream organisms
Waste Disposal
Household cleaners, paint, fertilizer, pesticides and car maintenance products are commonly dumped down the drain for disposal. Septic systems and sewage treatment plants are not designed to treat toxic or hazardous materials, allowing those materials to enter surface and groundwater resources.
Yard wastes and materials that collect on paved surfaces such as soil, gasoline, antifreeze, and oil are washed directly to watercourses by rain and melting snow.
Storm sewers and stormwater DO NOT go to a sewage treatment plant, they are direct links to streams, rivers, lakes, and wetlands.
Septic systems are used in rural areas to treat disease causing organisms, viruses, and nutrients contained in household wastewater.
Wastewater is distributed below the soil surface where aerobic bacteria consume the organisms and nutrients in wastewater.
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POINT Source Pollution
Pollution that enters waterways from a single, identifiable location or source . . . typically from discharge pipes.
NONPOINT Source Pollution
Pollution that enters streams and waterways from a widespread area, rather than a specific point. Surface water runoff and groundwater transport and dissolve materials they contact while traveling over the landscape to streams, rivers, and other bodies of water