For example, it may be cheaper to prevent fertilizer runoff on a farm than retrofit a municipality's aging sewer system. By paying the farmer, the wastewater treatment plant could receive credits toward its own pollution. Or, a municipality might agree to incorporate subdivisions or trailer parks with more-polluting septic tanks into its sewer system. The state is also sampling storm drains to monitor current high flow conditions. Both studies look at sources in neighboring Pennsylvania as well as Delaware.
Clean water is vital to the nation's economy.
And, according to the National Association of Home Builders, a clean nearby body of water increases a home's value by 22 percent. The TDML studies are an essential first step, but it remains to be seen how much funding will be available for implementation. We're the front line of water pollution prevention efforts. When it rains, runoff from chemically-treated lawns, oil, salt and antifreeze from paved surfaces and manure from farmlands get washed into nearby streams and rivers. It's not as visible as the raw sewage and industrial discharges targeted following the passage of the 1972 Clean Water Act, but such non-point source pollution, as it's known, is just as deleterious.