Region 8
Nonpoint Source Pollution
National Information
Regional Information
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"Water has a voice. It carries a message that tells those down stream who you are and how you take care of the water."
~Bernie McGurt |
The United States has made tremendous advances in the past 25 years to clean up the aquatic environment by controlling pollution from "point sources" such as industry and sewage treatment plants. Today, polluted runoff from from agriculture and urban runoff remains the nation's largest source of water quality problems. It's the main reason approximately 40 percent of surveyed rivers, lakes, and estuaries in the United States are not clean enough to meet basic uses such as fishing or swimming.