Clean water is vital to our way of life and our economy. It touches our lives in everything we do. We depend on clean water for our personal and household use, for recreation and enjoyment, agricultural and industrial activities, and for habitat for wildlife. As a result, there is strong public support for efforts to control water pollution. 

Sources of water pollution are generally classified as either point or non-point. Point sources are discernable and confined sources (such as pipes and ditches) from which pollutants are or may be discharged. Sources may include an industry or municipality that discharges pollutants through pipes, ditches, lagoons, wells, or stacks or a single identifiable source such as a mine. 

Nonpoint sources are basically everything else. Nonpoint source (NPS) pollution, unlike pollution from industrial and sewage treatment plants, comes from many diffuse sources. NPS pollution is caused by rainfall or snowmelt moving over and through the ground. As the runoff moves, it picks up and carries away natural and human-made pollutants, finally depositing them into lakes, rivers, wetlands, coastal waters, and even our underground sources of drinking water. Sources of NPS pollution can come from any activity that disturbs the land, including road construction, residential development, forestry, agriculture, physical changes to stream channels, and many other activities. 

The approaches to dealing with these two categories of sources are very different. Point sources are dealt with through a permitting and regulatory process. In North Carolina, these permitting requirements are administered through the Division of Water Quality in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Permits are required for every discharge of pollutants from a point source to waters of the United States. Detailed information about this process can be obtained from the Division of Water Quality in Asheville, NC (828-251-6208). 

Addressing nonpoint source pollution follows a very different approach. As with point source, the States have the lead in dealing with this concern. However, controlling nonpoint pollution is primarily limited to voluntary, non-regulatory means. States are required to identify problem waters, identify the categories of nonpoint sources causing the problem, and outline a voluntary process for controlling the pollution. The voluntary approaches include basinwide water quality plans, the development of voluntary best management practices (BMPs), technical assistance programs, and cost sharing for implementation of prevention and control measures. 

A lot of progress has been made in the area of point source pollution. For example, a January 1955 report entitled Water Resources of North Carolina identified many cases of untreated sewage being dumped into Pigeon River tributaries, as well as major water quality problems associated with several industrial operations. Those problems have either been solved or greatly reduced in magnitude. This experience reflects the national situation. 

However, such is not the case with nonpoint pollution. It remains the Nation's largest source of water quality problems. Nationally, the most common pollutants are sediment and nutrients. Here in Haywood County, the biggest problem is sediment. The most common sources of sediment in our area include eroding roads and road banks, construction sites, eroding stream banks, and certain agricultural operations. 

This voluntary approach to nonpoint pollution control makes all the difference if you are a landowner in Haywood County. There is a lot of help available to correct these problems. Technical assistance and some funds are available thru USDA-Natural Resource and Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Haywood Soil and Water Conservation District. The Haywood Waterways Association was created to provide information and act as a catalyst to raise funds for projects that reduce nonpoint source pollution in the Pigeon River watershed. Working together with landowners, much can be done to improve the quality of water in our County. 

In a few months, Haywood Waterways Association and its partners will be holding a series of public forums on the issue of nonpoint source pollution in our area. These forums will be sharing the latest information about the conditions in our watersheds and provide a place for folks to identify their concerns and/or possible solutions. Lots of current information will be available to help willing landowners in addressing the problems on their properties thru voluntary programs. Look for announcements of the time and place of these upcoming forums. In the meantime, if you would like to know more about what you could do to help improve our water quality, please contact Gordon Small with the Haywood Waterways Association at 828-452-3323 (gordons891@aol.com).