Fredrick the flea drove around in his excavator, digging up the dirt and proceeding to use that dirt to build a throne for his pet raccoon. Well, it wasn’t actually his raccoon, but that’s not the point. 

“Fredrick Randolph Cheese!” Bob, also a flea, screamed in utter shock, dropping his pickled strawberry ice cream bar. “You can’t displace that much soil, you’re clogging the waterways! In the Lake Michigan watershed of all places. I expect more from you.”

“But Bob, how else will I build my throne for my raccoon?” Fredrick protested.

“First of all, that is my raccoon that you stole from me. Secondly, runoff is going to carry all that soil into the rivers and clog them. Lastly, you could use literally any other material to build that throne!”

“Oh, really Bob? Could I use radioactive chemicals from my radioactive chemical factory along the Black River to build my raccoon’s throne?”

“Why in the world do you have a radioactive- you know what, I don’t care why. Your factory is a source of point source pollution! You are polluting that poor river by having your chemicals leak into it!”

“Oops, guess I shouldn’t mention the sewage treatment plant that I run on the Galien River, that thing definitely releases a lot of chemicals.” Bob sighed. That’s when Felipe the fairy fish flew by. “Ew, a bug!” Fredrick cried, taking a comically large bottle of pesticide out of his pocket.

“Stop that Fredrick,” Bob said, scaring away Felipe, “That pesticide will cause non-point pollution when the runoff washes it into the rivers!”

“What even is non-point source and point source pollution?”

“Well, non-point source pollution is water pollution with no specific origin. Point source pollution is water pollution that has a specific source. It is important to control both these types of pollution. This is because water is vital to all life. Polluting this water can be a danger to the ecosystem around it. Polluted water also causes our watershed to be unhealthy. Water pollution has disastrous effects on the environment. These include, but are not limited to, greatly reducing oxygen levels in the water, causing excessive algae growth, and disrupting food chains. ”

“Ok, but what is a watershed? And runoff?”

“I’m glad you asked! A watershed is an area of land where surface water drains down to a single point, also known as a drainage basin. Runoff takes place when there is an excess of water and the land can’t absorb it all. Runoff is affected by topography, which is the physical appearance of an area.”

“Bob, aren’t you contributing to all this pollution? You just left that pickled strawberry ice cream bar wrapper right on the ground. You do know that trash could get into the water, right?” Bob felt very embarrassed and quietly picked up the wrapper. “Also, all the herbicides you spray on your garden too. Those are washing into our rivers. You really need to be more responsible Bob. Not to mention when you changed the oil on my excavator exactly 384,480 minutes ago and spilled a bit on the grass. That probably washed right into the water when it rained a day after, you river hater.”

“But Fredrick, I-”

“King of pollution.”

“What about-”

“Wildlife murderer.”

“Seriously-”

“Water arsonist.”

“Fredrick, you can’t burn water.”

“If it was possible you would do it.”

“Look, I’m sorry Fredrick. Although, I’ve done many other things to help reduce pollution. I’ve recently planted a rain garden and have been using a rain barrel, both of which prevent runoff.”

“Hey, I’ve been doing stuff too! I have been working a lot on eliminating my serial littering problem. From now on I’ll also stop dumping buckets of radioactive chemicals into lakes to create mutant fish.”

“What about your dirt throne?”

“I will heed your advice and use something else. I could also use some mulch to prevent soil runoff in my yard. Oh, and I could also recycle. And I could stop leaving water running. Also I could-”

“We get it, Fredrick.” Bob said, “Now clean up this disaster, I’m going to go tend to my garden. Fredrick, eager to start his anti-pollution journey, began putting back all of the dirt. Bob watched as Fredrick began to plant shrubs. Bob smiled, proud of his brother, and left. He took the raccoon with him.