Pointless Pollution: America's Water Crisis

Walter Cronkite narrates this CINE Golden Eagle award-winning documentary which examines "non-point source pollution," or the pollution which results from runoff which doesn't emanate from a single source. In other words, it's not the pollution from a sewage treatment plant or a chemical company, but rather the oil, grease, and trash from our streets that flow into drains; or the runoff from fertilizers and pesticides. Some estimate that 80% of the contamination in our water resources results from nonpoint source pollution. The program looks at several instances--both large and small--of the problem: the oyster industry decline in Chesapeake Bay; an Alabama hog farmer whose hogs singlehandedly ruined a creek with their waste; and the most disturbing, the rise in nitrates in the underground reservoirs of southeast Minnesota, resulting in the deaths of two infants from "blue baby syndrome," as a result of the pollution. This is a hard-hitting documentary that, because of its price, will have to do most of its educating in the school systems, rather than to the general public. Highly recommended for high school libraries and public libraries who can afford it. (See THE DINGLES for availability.)