ABSTRACT
In Poland, most river basins have a great number of point and nonpoint sources of pollution. To define contributions from both point and nonpoint sources of pollution, a working hypothesis can be used which assumes that hydrologic conditions drive the nonpoint source and that the point source contribution can be accounted for. Water outflow from drainage basins can be divided into two parts: the first part originating from groundwater and the second part from surface and subsurface run-off. The pollution load from point sources undergoes instantaneous fluctuations; in the longer time interval, the load changes are slow. While nonpoint pollution is a function of hydrologic conditions as well as the pollutant retention in the aeration zone, the result is a considerably higher variation coefficient. The discussions create two methods of estimating point and nonpoint pollution loads are genetic and statistic.
