Best Management Practices: The term says it all
By Lucia Machado, nonpoint source coordinator for the
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
Note: This is the fourth of a four-part series about Colorado’s strategy to address nonpoint sources of pollution.
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| Lucia Machado |
Nonpoint source impacts to degradation of water quality, and aquatic and riparian habitats, are found everywhere in the landscape and can be caused or worsened by myriad anthropogenic activities.
But nonpoint sources of pollution are not regulated.
How then, can we all make a difference in controlling these pollution sources and restore water quality? Voluntary engagement, personal involvement and best management practices (BMPs) are called for.
As the term implies, a BMP is deemed to be the best possible course of action within the given context and according to what is accepted common sense. The definition that the Colorado Nonpoint Source Program provides in its management plan states, “A practice or combination of practices, as determined by a responsible group after examination of alternative practices and appropriate public participation, to be the most effective, practicable means of preventing or reducing the amount of pollution generated by nonpoint sources to a level compatible with water/stream quality goals.”
BMPs encompass a large number of actions, tools and procedures – they are as varied as the many impacts they have been developed to address. They can be nonstructural and structural in nature.
Some examples of nonstructural BMPs can be the development of a watershed plan that characterizes and prioritizes all water quality impacts to a certain area; education and outreach activities that raise awareness and public involvement to prevent nonpoint source pollution; and changing agriculture irrigation practices to minimize polluted runoff.
Structural BMPs can include such activities as fencing off critical riparian corridors to prevent cattle from loitering in streams; lining or piping irrigation return ditches to prevent increased leaching of naturally occurring chemicals in the soil (an important BMP used in areas that have selenium-rich natural soils); physically removing contaminated soils; installing boulders and vegetation to stabilize an eroding stream bank; and constructing catchment ponds to pretreat polluted water before it reaches a stream.
But none of this can happen successfully unless there is involvement and commitment from the local community. There is only so much effort and money that state and federal agencies can invest to prevent nonpoint sources of pollution from impacting our environment. The most important factor in achieving success is if every single person takes responsibility and action. We all generate pollution and we all hold the key to success.