The United States has made tremendous advances in the past 25 years to clean up the aquatic environment by controlling pollution from industries and sewage treatment plants. Unfortunately, we did not do enough to control pollution from diffuse, or nonpoint, sources. Today, nonpoint source (NPS) pollution remains the nation's largest source of water quality problems. It's the main reason that approximately 40 percent of our surveyed rivers, lakes, and estuaries are not clean enough to meet basic uses such as fishing or swimming.

NPS pollution occurs when rainfall, snowmelt, or irrigation runs over land or through the ground, picks up pollutants, and deposits them into rivers, lakes, and coastal waters or introduces them into ground water. 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 NPS problem. NPS pollution also includes adverse changes to the vegetation, shape, and flow of streams and other aquatic systems. To learn more about Nonpoint Source Pollution click on this website:

http://www.epa.gov/owow/nps/facts/

This spring, Boulder Valley began rolling out the first phase of its new Stormwater Management Program. This program is required at school sites with 1,000 or more people and will be implemented at Boulder, Broomfield, Centaurus, Fairview, and Monarch high schools. The program fulfills the requirements of the federal Clean Water Act. Follow this link to view the entire Stormwater Management Program for BVSD:

Stormwater Management Program (PDF)

Although much of the program will be executed by BVSD custodial and maintenance staff, faculty and students will have a role to play as well. One of the major components of the plan is to increase awareness of the program and educate the BVSD community about stormwater pollution prevention. Following the awareness campaign, the program will encourage the high school communities to participate in activities related to preventing stormwater pollution. For more information on stormwater and nonpoint source pollution and how you can become involved, please visit:

• EPA Stormwater Homepage
• EPA Stormwater Education Center
• EPA Stormwater Program Homepage
• Colorado Water Protection Project
• Boulder County Wash Organization
• Downloadable Documents & Information