What is Nonpoint Source Pollution
Nonpoint Source Pollution (NPS) is the result of rainfall or snowmelt that moves through the ground picking up human-made pollutants and depositing it into our lakes, rivers, and streams.
​
Some examples include oil, faulty septic systems, pet waste, salt, acid drainage, grease or other urban runoff, excess fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides.
​
Why Should We Care
Let's take a scenario of a rain event or snow melt. The water flows across places like parking lots and it picks up contaminates such as oil and gas. When you see a puddle that carries a sheen on it, you are actually looking at an instance of nonpoint source pollution.
​
Flowing from a parking lot to a stream, river or lake, often nonpoint source pollution can find its way to the ocean. Pinpointing the source of the pollution is hard, not like pollution coming from a factory that empties out of a pipe.
​
Nonpoint source pollution can have multiple negative impacts:
​
Ecosystems-
