Water Pollution Poses a Serious Threat
Water pollution remains a serious threat to human health and the environment, assert Joseph Orlins and Anne Wehrly in the following viewpoint. The U.S. government regulates water pollution from identifiable "point" sources, but pollution from "nonpoint" sources (the source cannot be identified) continues to pollute America's waters, the authors maintain. Dangerous pollutants enter waters near urban areas when rain carries contaminated runoff from streets into storm drains. Pollutants also flow into bodies of water when irrigation washes toxic fertilizer and pesticides from farms and lawns into streams. Orlins is a civil engineering professor at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey; Wehrly is a freelance writer and attorney.