Why is polluted runoff a problem?

Stormwater runoff nearly always has pollution levels that exceed health and coastal water quality standards. Watershed pollution can make our coastal waters unsafe for swimming and shellfishing. The health of aquatic life is also threatened because they start accumulating toxins in their tissues. Besides being detrimental to fish and the genes of their offspring, those same toxins inside fish tissue may also hurt humans through consumption of contaminated seafood. Toxins enter the food web from the bottom and embed themselves in the tissues of organisms. As more complex life-forms prey on organisms with toxins, the toxins become more concentrated in a process called biomagnification. The biomagnification of toxins in complex organisms have detrimental effects on wildlife. The brown pelican and the bald eagle, two important coastal birds, suffered from the biomagnification effects of DDT runoff, and stared extinction in the face until efforts were made to ban the use of that pesticide. The daily actions of people must change to include behaviors that prevent polluted runoff from getting into our sensitive watersheds. When we hurt our watersheds we are hurting ourselves.