Environmental extension: A key to nonpoint-source pollution abatement

Excerpt

THE often quoted line of Pogo, “We have met the enemy and it is us,” is certainly applicable to the problem T of nonpoint-source pollution. Through land use activities, all of us contribute to the modification of the chemical, physical, and biological environment on the earth's surhce. Often, these modifications are detrimental to our soil, water, and air resources. In a real sense, we are frequently and unknowingly polluting our own backyards. However, the pollutants don't necessarily stay put. As rains fall and water moves over and through the land surface, it carries some of these pollutants with it, degrading our own and our neighbors' soil and water.

Because nonpoint-source pollution originates from areawide rather than localized sources, it is difficult to measure and often goes unnoticed. Pollutant contributions from one area may seem insignificant, but the cumulative effects of many small sources now create the greatest impairment of water quality. To combat this form of pollution, the way we use and manage our land must change. That will involve us all.

Progress in reducing nonpoint-source pollution will come not so much from changes in what we use our land …