97 



SOIL? 

 AND WATER 

 CONSERVATION 

 SOCIETY 



A National Nonpoint-Source 



Water Pollution 



Control Initiative 



Guiding 

 Principles 



Pending reauthorization of the Federal Water Pollution Control Art of 1972, commonly 

 referred to as the Clean Water Act, represents an opportunity for the nation to deal 

 effectively with nonpoint-source water pollution as a means of ensuring public health, 

 safety, and welfare. Water pollution control laws heretofore have focused primarily on 

 point sources of pollution, and the nation has enjoyed a measure of success in addressing 

 those so-called end-of-pipe sources of contamination. Success has been much more 

 Umited in dealing with diffuse sources of pollution that originate on agricultural, urban, 

 forest, and other land. In fact, agriculture today is considered the single greatest source 

 of water pollution in many regions of the coimtry. Major agricultural pollutants include 

 sediments from soil erosion, nutrients from fertilizers and hvestock wastes, pesticides, 

 and salts in irrigation return flows. 



The Soil and Water Conservation Society believes the Congress, in reauthorizing the 

 Clean Water Act, should deal more comprehensively with nonpoint sources of pollution 

 than it has in previous versions of the law. Addressing the nonpoint-source pollution 

 problem effectively and efficiently could be among the most critical steps taken in this 

 nation's attempt to achieve sustainabiUty in the use of agricultural and other land. 

 SWCS thus offers the following principles to guide policymakers in their dehberations on 

 the Clean Water Act: 



All important sources of nonpoint pollution-agricultural and otherwise-should be 

 dealt with in the reauthorization of the Clean Water Act. 



A watershed-based approach to the pollution control effort should be employed 

 that accounts for all sources of pollution-point and nonpoint-in a watershed and 

 that recognizes the interartion of surface water and groundwater resources within 

 that hydrologic unit. 



A national nonpoint-source pollution control initiative should be implemented to 

 the extent possible through state and local governments, with federal financial 

 assistance, guidance, and oversight. 



A comprehensive, ongoing national water quality monitoring program is essential 

 to any national nonpoint-source pollution control effort~to document existing 



