A new nonpoint-source water pollution control challenge

Excerpt

CONGRESS enacted the Water Quality Act of 1987 on February 4. This law sets new directions for the Clean Water Act, including a new section 319 that encourages states to strengthen management of nonpoint-source water pollution. An expenditure of $400 million is authorized over the next four years to help states implement their nonpoint-source control responsibilities. The act also establishes new authorities for attacking pollution in lakes, bays, estuaries, and groundwater using nonpoint-sow money and other funds authorized in the Clean Water Act to manage identified nonpoint-sow pollution in targeted waterbodies.

The Clean Water Act's “Declaration of Goals and Policy” is amended to mandate “the control of both point and nonpoint sources of pollution” (emphasis added) so the act's goals can be met. This puts control of nonpoint-source pollution on an equal policy footing with point sources in the Environmental Protection Agency's water pollution control effort.

Under section 319, states must develop an assessment (within 18 months) indicating which state waters are not likely to achieve water quality standards without additional action to control nonpoint pollution sources. In addition, states must prepare a management program …