AP Environmental Science: Chapter 6: Water Pollution Terms and Concepts
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| 578059031 | Point Source | Pollution from a single, usually easily recognizable source. | 0 | |
| 578059032 | Non-Point Source | Pollution that comes from many sources (a general area) rather than a single specific site. | 1 | |
| 578059033 | Pathogens | Type of pollutant, bacteria, virus, contagious diseases. --Sources: medical wastes, animal and human wastes. -Can be non-point, usually the result of improper disposal. | 2 | |
| 578059034 | Organic Matter | Biodegradable remains of plants and animals, point and non-point. -Causes eutrophication --Increases BOD, decomposers use up oxygen | 3 | |
| 578059035 | Organic Chemicals | Pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers. Solvents, petroleum products. --MOST TOXIC TO LIFE -Some are persistent, both point and non-point, major type. | 4 | |
| 578059036 | Inorganic Chemicals | Acids, salts, toxiic metals. Many are toxic, another MAJOR type. Will not normally break down in nature, difficult to remediate (clean up). | 5 | |
| 578059037 | Physical Agents | Suspended solids and heat. Suspended solids negatively impact bodies of water. Heat from power plants raise temperature of water source (called thermal pollution) | 6 | |
| 579366126 | Thermal Pollution | A type of pollution that occurs when heat is released into water or air and produces undesirable effects on the environment. | 7 | |
| 579366127 | Radioactive Wastes | Sources include nuclear power plants, defense plants and medical. Type of waste produced in the nuclear fuel cycle; generally classified as low or high level. | 8 | |
| 579366128 | Bioassay | This is a measure of the response of plants (or animals) to toxic substances in soil and water. Test is done to determine the presence/absence of toxins. Doesn't determine the toxin. Usually for point sources. | 9 | |
| 579366129 | Macroinvertebrates | Bottom dwelling (benthic) visible to the naked eye, used to determine the overall health of a river or stream. Some are intolerant of pollution, while others thrive in polluted water. Because they live on the bottom and can't escape, their absence/presence gives an indication of water quality. | 10 | |
| 579366130 | Pollution Tolerance Index | Evaluation based on the number of different indicator organisms. Divided into four groups based on their intolerance to pollution. The PTI is determined by multiplying the type of organisms by its index (pollution) value. | 11 | |
| 579366131 | EPT Richness | Ephmeroptera, plecoptera, and trichoptera richness... -Method of assessing water quality, based on the abundance of different pollution intolerant families that are members of the 3 insect orders. | 12 | |
| 579366132 | Sequential Comparison Index SCI | Measure of the distribution of individuals among the community of organisms collected from the stream/river Relates the diversity and relative abundance of organisms. For this each time a new organism is identified, a new run beings. | 13 | |
| 579366133 | DO Dissolved Oxygen | A parameter of OWI, 2 sources of dissolved oxygen in streams: atmosphere and algae. -Physical factor: water temperature -Human factor: organic waste ---with high levels of organic matter, which has high nitrogen levels, and it causes eutrophication, which lowers oxygen levels. | 14 | |
| 579366134 | Fecal Coliform | The origin in streams comes from feces of humans and other warm-blooded animals. You need to use various dilutions of sample because you need to be able to see and count the colonies of the fecal coliform. They're not dangerous to human health because they're indicators for other pathogens and occurs naturally in the human digestive tract. | 15 | |
| 579366135 | BOD Biochemical Oxygen Demand | Measure of the quantity of O2 used by microorganisms in an aerobic oxidation. With a very low amount of oxygen from a BOD test, it indicates that organic pollution increases. Some sources of the material that cause high oxygen demand are pulp of paper mills, meat and packing, dead processing and waste treatment. | 16 | |
| 579366136 | Turbidity | The measure of relative clarity of water, measure with the scattering o light (units: NTUS) with excessive turbidity, decrease in ability to support diverse aquatic life and suspended solids clog fish gills, reduce growth rates. | 17 | |
| 579366137 | Toxicity | The measure of how harmful a substance is to life. It depends on dosage and response. (also, solubility, persistence, and chemical interactions. | 18 | |
| 579366138 | Dosage | The amount of potentially harmful substances ingested, inhaled, or absorbed into the skin. Whether dosage is harmful is dependent on its size, how often the exposure is, who is exposed, how well the body detoxifies itself, and the genetic make-up that determines the sensitivity to the toxin. | 19 | |
| 579366139 | Response | Th type and amount of health damage that results from the exposure. | 20 | |
| 579366140 | Genetic Sensitivity Curve | The number of individuals vs. their effects to the same dose of toxicity. | 21 | |
| 579366141 | Solubility | Water soluble compounds can easily move through the environment (influence toxicity) | 22 | |
| 579366142 | Persistence | Some compounds last a long time in the environment (ex. PCBs) they don't break down in nature. | 23 | |
| 579366143 | Synergistic Interactions | The multiplication of harmful effects caused by 2 or more toxins, magnify the response (chemical interactions) | 24 | |
| 579366144 | Bioaccumulation | Occurs when toxic molecules are absorbed and stored in specific organs or tissue at levels higher than normal. | 25 | |
| 579366145 | Biological Magnification | The levels of toxins are magnified as they pass up the food chain. Particularly common with persistent compounds like DDT and PCBs. | 26 | |
| 579366146 | Acute Effects | Immediate harmful reaction (can range from rash to death). | 27 | |
| 579366147 | Chronic Response | Permanent damage to the body. | 28 | |
| 579366148 | Poison | A chemical that has an LD50 of 50mg/kg of body weight. | 29 | |
| 579366149 | LD50 | a crude approximation of a chemical toxicity defined as the dose at which 50% of the population dies on exposure (lethal dose). | 30 | |
| 579366150 | Epidemiology | The study of the health of people exposed to specific toxins. | 31 | |
| 579366151 | Threshold Effects | A level below which effects are not observable and above which effects become apparent. Provide for the LD50 for toxins. | 32 | |
| 579366152 | Ecological Gradient | A change in the relative abundance of a species or group of species along a line or over an area. | 33 | |
| 579366153 | Dose-Response Curve | Show the effects of various dosages of a toxic agent on test organisms. The principal that the effect of a certain chemical on an individual depends on the dose or concentration of that chemical. | 34 | |
| 579860056 | Toxic Substance | Related to the LD50 investigation. | 35 | |
| 579860057 | Hazardous Substance | Cause harm by being flammable (gasoline), irritating or damaging the skin or lungs, interfering with oxygen uptake, and causing an allergic reaction. | 36 | |
| 579860058 | Allergens | Chemicals that cause allergies. | 37 | |
| 579860059 | Mutagens | Chemicals that cause mutations of the DNA. | 38 | |
| 579860060 | Teratogens | Chemicals that cause birth defects | 39 | |
| 579860061 | Carcinogens | Chemicals that cause cancer | 40 | |
| 579860062 | MSDS | Material Safety Data Sheet -Summary documents required by the government to be attached to all potentially hazardous chemicals. The physical and chemical characteristics as well as emergency response instructions. Must be retained with the chemical in the event of a spill or exposure. Not required for consumer goods. | 41 | |
| 579860063 | Risk Assessment | Identifying hazards and evaluating the statistical probabilities based on past experience, testing and epidemiological studies for substances that have been around for a long time. Compare new and old models. | 42 | |
| 579860064 | Comparative Risk Analysis | Ranking various risks. -Ex. Which environmental problem is likely to cause harm to human health and the environment? ---We will fix what will affect us faster | 43 | |
| 579860065 | Risk Management | Reducing or eliminating risk | 44 | |
| 579860066 | Risk Communication | Informing decision makers and the public about risks. Government then decides what level of risk is acceptable. | 45 | |
| 579860067 | Cost-Benefit Analysis | The standard method of determining the level of risk, whether the estimated cost for reducing or eliminating the risk outweighs the long term health benefits. -You're going to use the cheaper one | 46 | |
| 579860068 | Safe Drinking Water Act | Congress passed in 1973. The U.S. EPA had to regulate drinking water contaminates that may pose health risks. Revised in 1986 and 1996. The EPA set legal limits on levels of certain contaminates in drinking water. These limits reflect both the levels to protect human health and the level of water systems can achieve using the best available technology. Now regulates 87 contaminates (75,000 out there). It gives states the opportunity to set and enforce their own drinking water standards if the standards are at least as strong as the EPA's national standards. | 47 | |
| 579860069 | MCL | The regulations set the legal limit for each contaminant. Maximum contaminant level-- they have to meet it. | 48 | |
| 579860070 | MCLG | A health goal, maximum contaminant level goal. At this level, a person could drink 2L water a day for 70 years without the adverse effect. | 49 | |
| 579860071 | PPM | Units, mg/L= parts per million | 50 | |
| 579860072 | PPB | Units, ug/L= parts per billion | 51 | |
| 579860073 | Oxygen Sag Curve | The decline and recovery of oxygen in streams and rivers, the dilution and breakdown of dregradable wastes by bacteria depletes dissolved oxygen. Thermal pollution from a point source also causes this because oxygen saturation declines with increasing temperature. | 52 | |
| 579860074 | Oligotrophic | Referring to bodies of waters having a low concentration of the chemical elements required for life. | 53 | |
| 579860075 | Eutrophic | Referring to bodies of water having an abundance of the chemical elements required for life. | 54 | |
| 580010773 | Seasonal Turnover | In temperate regions where the water mixes. It happens in spring and gall because of the water's unique property; water is densest at 4 deg. C water is warmer or colder than 4 deg. C it's less dense. | 55 | |
| 580010774 | Epilimnion | In the summer of a pond/lake turn over, it is the top layer, warm with high 02 | 56 | |
| 580010775 | Hypolimnion | The last layer, cold with low 02 | 57 | |
| 580010776 | Thermocline | The transition zone, prevents mixing in the new fall, this disappears and the water mizes. In the spring, the colder upper surface rises to 4C and there's another mixing. | 58 | |
| 580010777 | Contaminant Plume | A contaminant enters the ground water, it flows along with the water and disperses within the water and forms this down gradient (downstream) of the point of entry. | 59 | |
| 580702635 | Specific Gravity | Differences in gravity-pollutants can accumulate or concentrate in different parts of the aquifer. Water had a specific gravity of 1.0. | 60 | |
| 580702636 | Acid Mine Drainage | Drainage and runoff from coal and hard rock mines impact both surface and groundwater. Can disrupt growth and reproduction and is corrosive to structure. | 61 | |
| 580702637 | PCB's | Lasts a long time accumulates in organisms, most toxic, halogen, organic compound, aeromatic, carbon ring and organic benzyne ring. Part of the "dirty dozen", used in electrical equipment and others, banned in 1977. It's an insulator. More dense than water. | 62 | |
| 580702638 | Effluent | The separated liquid that flows out into the drain field (piping and gravel), where aerobic bacteria decompose the organic matter. In wastewater treatment, residential septic systems. | 63 | |
| 580702639 | Residential Septic System | Septic tanks- concrete box that holds sewage for +/- 2 days. The calm environment allows dirt and solids to settle out and fall to the bottom. Grease and lighter particles float to the top. Little treatment of waste in tank (few anaerobic bacteria). Water high in nitrates, pathogens released. | 64 | |
| 580702640 | Municipal Treatment System | Designed and function to serve the community/city in an efficient and closely monitored process. | 65 | |
| 580702641 | Municipal Treatment | -Primary: uses mechanical methods to remediate various sized solid particles. Done by bar screens, then grit chambers. SOlids are removed to solid processing. -Secondary: mostly-activtaed sludge. Water is transferred to large aeration tanks. The effluent is aerated and mixed, stimulates the growth of bacteria (decomposing) that consume organics. Most solids- solid processing with beneficial bacteria- seed sludge. -advanced: effluent is prepared for discharge, usually done by disinfection by a chlorine-based compound to kill pathogens. | 66 | |
| 580702642 | Mobile Source | Source of air pollutants that move from place to place, for example, cars, trucks, buses and trains. | 67 | |
| 580702643 | Heavy Metals | Refers to a number of metals, including lead, mercury, arsenic, and silver (among others) that have a relatively high atomic number (the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom). They are often toxic at relatively low concentrations, causing a variety of environmental problems. | 68 | |
| 580702644 | RCRA 8 Metals | The resource conversation and recovery act. List of metals include: arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, selenium and silver. | 69 | |
| 580702645 | Priority Pollutants | Under clean water, regulated by EPA. Set of chemical pollutants. EPA must establish ambient water-quality criteria and effluent limitations. The official list was based on a 1977 consent decree that settled a legal challenge to the U.S. EPA's program for controlling hazardous pollutants. | 70 | |
| 580702646 | Toxic Pathway | Exposure pathways, concentrations of toxic chemicals and populations/numbers, characteristics and habits-- which aid the investigator in evaluating and quantifying exposure in a given situation. | 71 | |
| 580702647 | Methylation | Denotes the addition of a methyl group to a substrate or the substitution of an atom or group by a methyl group. It's a form of alkylation with specifically a methyl group, rather than a larger carbon chain, placing a hydrogen atom. | 72 | |
| 580702648 | Waste Water Renovation and Conservation Cycle | Practice of applying wastewater to the land. In some systems, treated wastewater is applied to agricultural crops, and as the water infiltrates through the soil layer it is naturally purified. Reuse of the water is by pumping it out of the ground for municipal or agricultural uses. | 73 | |
| 580702649 | Hypoxic | Hypoxia or oxygen depletion is a phenomenon that occurs in aquatic environments as dissolved oxygen (DO; molecular oxygen dissolved in the water) becomes reduced in concentration to a point detrimental to aquatic organisms living in the system. | 74 |
