Terms : Hide Images
| 329083018 | Water Pollution | chemical, biological, physical change in water quality that has harmful effect on living organisms or makes water unsuitable for desired uses | |
| 329083019 | Point Source | large amount of pollution coming from one easily identifiable area | |
| 329083021 | Nonpoint Source | widely spread source of pollution that is difficult to link to a specific point of origin | |
| 329083023 | Fecal Coliform Bacteria | bacteria that occur naturally in human intestines and are used as a standard measure of microbial pollution and an indicator of sewage contamination and disease potential for a water source | |
| 329083025 | DO | dissolved oxygen; inputs of oxygen demanding wastes like dead organic material, untreated sewage, manure, etc can cause DO to decrease | |
| 329083027 | Indicator Species | species that serve as early warnings that a community or ecosystem is being degraded | |
| 329083029 | Eutrophication | natural buildup over time of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) in freshwater lakes and ponds that leads to an increase in the growth of algae | |
| 329083031 | Oligotrophic Lake | low in nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus); water is usually clear and less biodiverse | |
| 329083033 | Eutrophic Lake | high in nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus); water is usually cloudy with phytoplankton/algae | |
| 329083035 | Cultural Eutrophication | overnourishment of aquatic ecosystems with plant nutrients (mostly nitrates and phosphates) because of human activities such as agriculture, urbanization, and discharges from industrial plants and sewage treatment plants | |
| 329083037 | Plume | underground pattern of contaminant concentrations created by the movement of groundwater beneath a contaminant source; contaminants spread mostly laterally in the direction of groundwater movement; source site has the highest concentration, and the concentration decreases away from the source | |
| 329083039 | Degradable Wastes | groundwater pollutants that can be decomposed if oxygen and decomposers are present; ex: organic material, fecal waste, etc. | |
| 329083041 | Nondegradable Wastes | groundwater pollutants that cannot be broken down; ex: lead, arsenic, mercury, fluoride | |
| 329083043 | Slowly Degradable Wastes | groundwater pollutants that are often synthetic hydrocarbons like DDT | |
| 329083045 | HAB | harmful algal bloom; excess nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) can cause rapid increases in algae growth and some types of algae can be toxic | |
| 329083046 | Oxygen-Depleted Zones | areas of aquatic ecosystem with little to no oxygen due to increased amounts of decomposition of organic material/debris | |
| 329083047 | Dead Zone | term used to describe areas of aquatic ecosystem where little to no oxygen is dissolved in the water since it has been largely used up by decomposers breaking down the organic wastes that have settled due to eutrophication | |
| 329083048 | Hypoxic / Hypoxia | low dissolved oxygen levels in the water | |
| 329083049 | Anoxic / Anoxia | no dissolved oxygen in the water | |
| 329083050 | Crude Petroleum | oil as it comes out of the ground; the type of material that spilled during the Gulf of Mexico BP disaster | |
| 329083051 | Refined Petroleum | fuel oil, motor oil, gasoline, etc. | |
| 329083052 | Exxon Valdez | oil tanker spill that occured in 1989 off the coast of Alaska; ship was single hull and the oil spill resulted in the oil tankers to be encouraged to have double hulls | |
| 329083053 | Clean Water Act | originally passed in 1972; regulates surface water pollution and point source polluters must obtain permits for the units of pollution they emit | |
| 329083054 | Discharge Trading Policy | would allow polluters to sell pollution credits that they do not use or purchase pollution credits if they pollute above and beyond the set amount allowed | |
| 329083055 | Septic Tank | underground tank for treating wastewater from a home in rural and suburban areas; bacteria in the tank decompose organic wastes, and the sludge settles to the bottom of the tank; effluent flows out of the tank into the ground through a field of drainpipes called the drain field | |
| 329083056 | Sewage Treatment Plant | facility built to cleanse and purify all wastewater coming from a municipality (typically towns and cities) | |
| 329083057 | Primary Sewage Treatment | physical process; first step of sewage treatment; eliminates most particulate material from raw sewage using grates, screens, and gravity (settling) | |
| 329083058 | Secondary Sewage Treatment | biological process; second step of sewage treatment; bacteria breakdown organic waste, aeration accelerates the process | |
| 329083059 | Advanced / Tertiary Sewage Treatment | specialized chemical and physical processes that reduce the amount of specific pollutants (usually nitrates and phosphates) left in wastewater after primary and secondary sewage treatment; often more expensive | |
| 329083060 | Bleaching / Disinfection | ultraviolet light or chlorine often used to get rid of any microbes/bacteria in treated wastewater and water is bleached to rid it of any coloration | |
| 329083061 | Sludge | solid materials that are removed from wastewater treatment process; usually contain bacteria, fecal waste, organic material; has to be removed and disposed of | |
| 329083062 | Composting Toilet Systems | plumbing fixtures that contain and treat human waste via microbiological processes, use very little water for flushing | |
| 329083063 | U.S. Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 | requires the EPA to establish national drinking water standards, called maximum contaminant levels, for any pollutants that may have adverse effects on human health; has helped improve drinking water in much of the United States; maximum contaminant levels have not been set for many potentially dangerous water pollutants such as certain synthetic organic compounds, radioactive materials, toxic metals, and pathogens | |
| 329083064 | MCL's | Maximum Contaminant Levels; part of the Safe Drinking Water Act; established as the highest amount of specific pollutants that are acceptable in municipal drinking water supplies |
