Edited by Rosanne W. Fortner and Victor J. Mayer. The Ohio State University Research Foundation, 1987. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources. CPR For ODNR- Nonpoint Pollution Prevention. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
Water pollution costs millions of dollars a year to cleanup.
Unfortunately, these efforts are still inadequate as research on the quality of the Great Lakes water resources has shown. Point source pollution is identifiable to a certain place such as when an industry pollutes a stream or a wastewater treatment plant isn't functioning correctly. The results can be seen and sometimes smelled downstream. Basically, the source of point pollution can be identified from a discharge pipe into the waterway. When the exact origin of a pollutant is not known, such as when pesticides and fertilizers leach into waterways, they are referred to as nonpoint sources .