Environmental Partners & Supporters
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Non-point Source Pollution
Non-point source pollution (NPSP) is an elaborate term for pollution that starts at one point and winds up somewhere else. NPSP occurs when rainfall, snowmelt, or irrigation runs over land or through the ground, picks up pollutants and debris, and deposits them into rivers, lakes, and coastal waters or introduces them into ground water. Just imagine the path taken by a drop of rain from the time it hits the ground to when it reaches a river, ground water, or the ocean. Any pollutant it picks up on its journey can become part of the NPSP problem. It is, in part, the cumulative result of our everyday personal actions.
When it comes to chemical runoff, the primary nutrients of concern here are nitrogen and phosphorus. Both are essential for plant growth, but if too much enters a water body, it can lead to a condition called eutrophication. Eutrophication results in an overproduction of harmful algae and increase in invasive species such as stinging sea nettles. (You have probably noticed the major increase in Barnegat Bay.) Excessive algae block out sunlight, killing off underwater plants, which decay and deplete the oxygen in the water. This “hypoxia” in turn, can kill large schools of fish. Harmful algae blooms (HABs) also occur under eutrophic conditions. When fish and shellfish feed on HABs, they ingest toxins that the algae produce. If people eat this seafood, they can become sick. Phosphorous sticks to soil particles and washes into surface water through runoff. Nitrogen is transformed by soil bacteria into nitrate, which can leach into groundwater or into surface water in runoff. Nitrate is harmful to human health in drinking water — especially babies under 6 months (blue-baby syndrome) and pregnant women. Check out what you can do on our Nitrogen and the Bay page.
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