feeding operation, or vessel or other floating craft, from which pollutants are or may be discharged. This term does not include agricultural storm water discharges and return flows from irrigated agriculture." There are important differences between point source pollution and NPS pollution. There are many more nonpoint sources than there are point sources, and they are more discrete than nonpoint sources. Furthermore, nonpoint source discharges are not always easily observed, and monitoring nonpoint pollution can be costly. Another difference is that NPS pollution will vary over time and space based on different weather and geographic conditions. All the above factors make nonpoint pollution more difficult to regulate than point sources. Section 208 Section 208 was Congress' first attempt to address NPS water pollution, and it directed states and local governments to create management plans that identified future waste treatment needs and identify and control NPS water pollution. The section notes that any areawide management plan must discuss how to identify "agriculturally and silviculturally related nonpoint sources of pollution," and "runoff from manure disposal areas, and from land used for livestock and crop production." Section 208 is in essence a federal funding mechanism for state programs that attempt to control NPS pollution, but its meager funding was completely used up by 1980. Section 208 was widely considered a failure because it did little to actually reduce NPS pollution. It created a voluntary provision that directs states to study whether regulatory controls are needed. The law left decisions to the states about whether to regulate NPS water pollution. There was no process or mechanism to develop standards or enforce them. Section 319 After section 208's failure to control NPS water pollution, in 1987 Congress passed the Water Quality Act which included a new section 319 to address the problem of nonpoint sources. This provision, also non-regulatory, authorizes EPA to fund demonstration programs and provide technical assistance to state and local governments. Some critics have argued that section 319 provides little improvement over section 208. The section requires states to identify water bodies that cannot meet water-quality standards without control of nonpoint sources. The states must then identify best management practices (BMPs) and measures for those impaired sources, along with an implementation plan. The EPA approves these plans, and if a state fails to develop a plan, the EPA must do so for the state. However, there are a number of problems with