nonpoint
- noun
- Specialized
- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) regulates nonpoint sources of water pollution, including stormwater runoff.
- nonpoint pollution
- nonpoint sources
Examples
-
From 1986 to 1996, nonpoint sources reduced their phosphorus discharges by 9 percent and their nitrogen discharges by 7 percent.
Academic text (1999) -
"Little is known of how nonpoint-source water pollution is related to agricultural practices."
Academic text (1998) -
Determining the nonpoint sources of pollution would be imperative in protecting the sources of water.
Academic text (2010) -
The development of control programs for nonpoint source pollution in the agricultural and livestock sectors requires a different approach.
Academic text (1993) -
But nonpoint depositions continue to come from the atmosphere and from agriculture.
Academic text (2005) -
But environmentalists now recognize "nonpoint sources" as the dominant water pollution problem in many regions.
Academic text (1999) -
As point sources were gradually improved, attention turned to nonpoint sources of pollution, primarily urban stormwater runoff.
Academic text (2006) -
The rest comes from polluted runoff from farms, city streets, construction sites, and other so-called nonpoint sources.
Academic text (1993) -
An ambitious program to reduce nonpoint-source pollution began in the late 1990s (Betz et al. 2005); its benefits are not yet known.
Academic text (2007) -
Polluted runoff from urban areas and farms is a major cause of nonpoint source pollution.
Antonyms
- Specialized
2
6.8
A single spot where pollution or radiation comes from, for example a factory
How Localized
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Nonpoint comes from non- and point, meaning 'not' and 'a single place'. A nonpoint source of pollution is pollution that comes from many small places instead of one clear source, for example fertilizer washed from many farms into streams.