Earlier efforts to improve the quality of the state’s waterways focused on the control of discernible, confined and discrete conveyances of pollutants. These were generally associated with discharges from industrial facilities, sewage treatment plants, vessels and tanks. For additional discussion of the enactments that were directed at what have been described as these point sources of pollution including the Spill Compensation and Control Act, N.J.S.A. 58:10-23.11 et seq.; the Water Pollution Control Act, N.J.S.A. 58:10A-1 et seq.; and the Water Quality Planning Act, N.J.S.A. 58:11A-1 et seq., see L. Goldshore, “New Directions In Water Pollution Control,” 100 N.J.L.J. 805 (Sept. 8, 1977).

Even as those milestone building blocks were being put in place and implemented in the late 1970s, environmental professionals were aware that the so-called nonpoint sources (NPS) were serious contributors to water pollution and would continue to be substantially unregulated. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the sources of NPS pollution include:

… land runoff, precipitation, atmospheric deposition, drainage, seepage or hydrologic modification. … 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 ground waters.

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