PREFACE

Most of us associate pollution with large cities. We think of smokestacks spewing out fumes, antiquated sewage treatment plants, and outfall pipes discharging industrial wastes directly into a river or lake. A significant amount of water pollution comes from this type of "point source" pollution, or pollution from a particular site, such as a factory.

However, if every city plant and industry were to shut down and stop discharging wastes for one day, over half of all today's pollution would continue to reach our rivers, lakes, and estuaries! The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 60% of the remaining water pollution in the U.S. can be attributed to nonpoint sources!

"Nonpoint source" pollution comes from the kind of everyday activities that no one thinks twice about, such as driving to work, cleaning with household chemicals, and applying fertilizer and pesticides to lawn and garden. The seemingly innocent chemicals and fertilizers are carried into streams, rivers, lakes and bays with the rain. For this reason, nonpoint source is also called runoff pollution.

Runoff moving across the ground may also sink into the soil and contaminate groundwater resources. Pollutants found in groundwater include pesticides from agriculture, petroleum products from gasoline storage areas, heavy metals form motor vehicles, and nitrates, bacteria, and viruses from septic systems. Rainwater percolating through older, unlined landfills can leach any number of highly concentrated, toxic chemicals and carry them to the groundwater.

Today a young mother with toddler in tow, a couple of homeowners, a landscape architect, a local scout troop, and the board member of a condominium association all made a difference.

• The young mother flushed the contents of her child's disposable diaper down the toilet before putting it in the trash. The waste goes into a sewage system instead of the landfill where it could potentially contaminate groundwater with bacteria and viruses. By using a diaper service and using disposable diapers minimally, she practices water conservation and helps reduce the solid waste stream at the landfill.
  

• The homeowners removed a discarded car battery containing acid and heavy metals from the creek behind their home. Canoeing on a regular basis allows them to keep an eye out for pollution.
  

• By using native plants, the landscape architect practices water conservation and helps keep surface and ground waters free of fertilizer and pesticides.
  

• Well aware that plastic items and other marine debris can harm or kill marine mammals, the scout troop meets at the beach and collects litter as part of an Adopt-A-Beach program.
  

• The condo board member implemented a recycling program in all buildings. The information he provides to new residents helps them to become acquainted with the environment. By attending planning board and county commissioner meetings, he keeps informed on important local environmental issues and shares the information through the condo's newsletter.
  

Legislation like the U.S. Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 addressed the need to protect the nation's inshore marine habitats and established the National Estuarine Research Reserve System under the direction of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA is responsible for designating estuaries as reserves and administering the system in cooperation with state governments.

Without the help of individuals and a greater community effort, the U.S. coast and the great wealth within its waters will decline. When people work together, the results can be astonishingly successful. Just imagine saving 30 gallons of water in your home each day. Your new water-conserving habits are magnified enormously when 100 other people in the neighborhood get behind the project and do the same. Together you have saved over 3000 gallons of water!

We pollute our environment every day in small ways without giving a thought to what we are doing. We often end up polluting our environment by how we care for it. Carelessly using something as simple as soap in our homes or fertilizer on our lawns affects the people who live downstream and impacts all other life downstream as well. An "environmental audit" is the first step to becoming environmentally responsible. Careful examination of our daily routines may reveal that some of the most ordinary things we do are also the most harmful!

Used as a guide, this book can help you determine if what you are doing has a positive or negative impact on our waters. Each chapter and individual sections within chapters give background information on pollution problems associated with that chapter or section. For example, the Lawn Care, Landscape, and Gardening chapter has information about stormwater runoff as well as fertilizer and pesticides. Background information is not meant to overwhelm or discourage the reader. It is intended to further your understanding of the environment, in your own space (inside and outside of the home) and the U.S. coast.

Key concepts are in italic print to alert you to the most important points. Refer to the appendix for further sources of information.

The book suggests steps that the average citizen can take to help solve water pollution problems. But many other possibilities are open and waiting to be explored. Some suggestions will be useful to you; others will not. Use what best fits your personal circumstances. You may come up with a few creative ideas of your own, too, and we would like to hear from you.