The total amwrnt of dl.ac.lved material, o|«pte«Ml:
inorganic, contained la water or wMtea.
trial usM.unp.latabte for drWWng,«»!
casat, pipe, or other conduit.
migrrtc ftroa^i the mcmbraaes.
gww la shallow water wHJ> 9 i»rtion of
and leaves risiag above the water
Any virus known to be raceretedta
-------
INTRODUCTION
Language is the essential building block of both knowledge and
action. Thus, for each new field of human activity, a new language must
be developed as the basis of creative thought, shared understanding and
joint action.
The rapidly developing field of water pollution control already
has stimulated its own special language through origination of new
terminology and popularization of other vocabulary formerly reserved
for highly technical study. Understanding of this language is necessary
for all those wishing to participate both in scientific inquiries and
social action designed to solve the world-wide crisis of water pollution
today.
To help meet this need, the Federal Water Pollution Control
Administration of the United States Department of the Interior, in
cooperation with the Open Lands Project of Chicago, Illinois, a
private conservation and environmental planning organization, has
published the following glossary of water pollution control terminology.
FWPCA and the Open Lands Project are grateful to Mrs. Olga Adler
Titelbaum of Chicago, Illinois, who prepared the original manuscript
for this glossary.
OPEN
LANDS
PROJECT
53 W. JACKSON BLVD.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60604
GPO 817—435—1
-------
I wish to express my appreciation to the following persons
who have contributed to this glossary by providing valuable source
materials, reviewing the copy at various stages of preparation and
arranging for its publication: Roberta Morrison and Dorothy Barrett
of the League of Women Voters; Gilbert F. White, professor of
geography, and John R. Sheaffer, research associate in the Center
for Urban Studies, University of Chicago; Grover Cook, Federal Water
Pollution Control Administration; Gunnar A. Peterson, executive
director, Open Lands Project, and, finally, my husband, Sydney
Titelbaum, professor of biology, Chicago City College.
Olga Adler Titelbaum
Chicago, Illinois, April 1970
-------
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The following reference sources were used in compiling this glossary:
Baldwin, Helene L., and McGuiness, C. L. A Primer on Ground Water.
Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1963 (reprinted 1964).
Beyer, Jacquelyn. Glossary of Some Basic Terms for Water Conservation Study.
Chicago: prepared for study groups of the League of Women Voters of Chicago
(dittoed), 1956-57.
Glossary, Great Lakes Basin Comprehensive Basin Study.
(Ann Arbor, Michigan: Great Lakes Basin Commission, September 11, 1968;
preliminary draft).
Leopold, Luna B., and Langbein, Walter B. A Primer on Water.
Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1960.
Mill & Factory. Conover-Mast, November 1966.
Moore, W. G. A Dictionary of Geography. Harmondsworth, Middlesex:
Penguin Books; revised and enlarged edition, 1952.
On the Water Front. Washington: League of Women Voters of the U. S.,
May 1957.
Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater. New York:
American Public Health Association, Inc.; twelfth edition, 1965.
Water Pollution, Greater Calumet Area, Indiana-Illinois. Chicago:
League of Women Voters of Chicago, April 1966.
Water for Illinois, A Plan for Action. Springfield, Illinois: Department of Business
and Economic Development, State of Illinois, March 1967.
The Water Resource in Northeastern Illinois: Planning Its Use.
Chicago: Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission, Technical Report #4,
June 1966.
Webster's Third New International Dictionary. Springfield, Massachusetts:
G. & C. Merriam Company, 1965.
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GLOSSARY OF WATER RESOURCE TERMS
ABS
accelerated
depreciation
acidity
acre-foot
(of water)
activated-carbon
filter
adsorption
aeration
aerobic
affluent
algicide
alkalinity
See alkyl benzene sulfonate.
In pollution abatement, an arrangement whereby,
as an incentive to industry to install pollution abate-
ment equipment, a company is allowed to deduct from
its taxable income the entire cost of such equipment
over a shorter period of time (perhaps only one to
three years) than in the case of other types of capital
investment.
The capacity of a substance to donate protons. Acids
contribute to the corrosiveness of water.
A quantity of water that would cover 1 acre to a depth
of 1 foot, that is 43,560 cubic feet, or 325,850 gallons.
A filter used to remove dissolved organic matter
from water,
A taking up of gases or liquids by the surfaces of
solids or liquids with which they are in contact.
The process or state of being supplied or impregnated
with air; in waste treatment, a process in which liquid
from the primary clarifier is mixed with compressed
air and with biologically active sludge.
Living or taking place only in the presence of mole-
cular oxygen.
Tributary.
Largely aquatic nonvascular plants that grow in either
sea water or fresh water; seaweeds and pond scum are
algae.
A chemical (such as copper sulfate) used to kill or
inhibit the growth of algae.
The capacity of a substance to accept protons. Natural
waters are generally neutral or slightly alkaline. The
alkalinity of water may range from a few milligrams
per liter to several hundred. Domestic sewage is usually
slightly more alkaline than the water from which it is
derived.
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- 2 -
alkyl benzene sulfonate
(ABS)
alum
anadromous
fish
anaerobic
anaerobic contact
process
anticline
antagonism,
pollution
aquatic plants
aquifer
artesian
aquifer
artesian spring
(artesian well)
A chemical surface-active agent used in
synthetic detergents that causes foaming;
its compounds to not readily decompose
biologically through bacterial action.
A chemical substance (usually potassium
aluminum sulfate), gelatinous when wet,
used in water-treatment plants for settling
out small particles of foreign matter.
Fish that go up-river to spawn (for example,
salmon, shad).
Living or taking place in the absence of mole-
cular oxygen.
A waste-treatment process similar to the
activated sludge process; it is largely one
of contact in the absence of free oxygen between
living organisms and sludge, in which the
organisms digest the organic matter in the sludge.
Arch or crest of a fold in rock strata. (Compare
syncline.)
The combined effect of two or more toxic substances
acting together that is less adverse than their sum
would be if each were acting separately or inde-
pendently. (Compare synergism.pollution.)
Plants that grow and live in water; they may be floating,
submerged, or emergent.
A porous layer of rock that carries a usable supply
of water. Gravel, sand, sandstone, and limestone
are the best water aarrlers; clay, shale, and crystalline
rocks are poor water carriers.
An aquifer that carries water under pressure.
A spring (well) in which confined groundwater under
pressure has a natural outlet.
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- 3 -
articulation
(of a water body)
avulsion
bar screen
barminutor
base flow
baselevel
basin
bedding
bedrock
benefit -cost
analysis
benthic
The ratio of area of inlets and bays to the total
area of the water body.
Marked changes in the shore of a water body or the
course of a stream (such as may result from wave
erosion) involving extensive removal and redeposition
of soil; such changes affect riparian property rights
and raise legal questions concerning property lines
and ownership of the transported and redeposited
material.
In a waste-treatment plant, a screen that removes
large suspended solids.
See comminutor.
The part of stream flow contributed by groundwater
which seeps into the surface streams.
The lowest level to which a stream can wear its bed.
Permanent baselevel is the level of the sea.
A region in which the strata or layers of rock dip in
all directions toward a central point. Thus, it is any
hollow or trough in the earth's crust, whether filled
by water or not. A river basin is the total area drained
by a river and its tributaries.
The arrangement of rocks in layers or strata.
The solid rock beneath the loose material (soil and
subsoil) with which most of the land surface of the
earth is covered. It is sometimes several hundred
feet beneath the surface, but is usually found at a
much smaller depth; in places, especially on steep
slopes, it has no soil cover at all.
Economic analysis of a resource development project,
taking into account both known and projected factors
with a view to discovering the relative efficiency of
the project.
Relating to the bottom underlying a body of water
(for example, mud-dwelling mollusks are benthic
organisms).
-------
benthic macroorganism
benthic microorganism
bgd
biodegradable
detergent
biota
bloom
brackish water
breakv/ater
canal
canal, ship
An organism associated with the bottom material
of a lake or stream, or with sludge and deposits in
a trickling filter, large enough to be retained by a
relatively coarse-mesh screen (No. 30 sieve, having
openings of 0. 589 mm.).
A bottom-dwelling organism small enough so that it
will be retained only by a relatively fine-mesh screen
(No. 100, having openings of 0.149 mm.).
Billion gallons per day.
See detergent, biodegradable.
Living things; the plant and animal life of a region.
The excessive growth of algae in a body of water
due to an oversupply of dissolved nutrients; it may
impart a disagreeable odor to the water, cause fish
to die, and impair the use of the water for drinking
or recreation. (See eutrophication.)
See oxygen demand, biochemical.
An area of soft, wet, spongy ground consisting chiefly
of decayed or decaying moss and other vegetable matter.
It often forms in shallow, stagnant lakes or ponds, and
is largely produced by sphagnum moss, from which
eventually peat is evolved. Bogs may also be formed
on cold, damp mountain surfaces. (Compare swamp.).
Water containing more than 1, 000 ppm of dissolved
solids.
A natural or artificial barrier that serves to break the
force of waves and thereby shelters craft in a harbor
or protects a beach from erosion.
An artificial watercourse cut to facilitate transportation,
drainage, or irrigation.
A canal deep enough and wide enough to permit the
passage of ocean-going vessels.
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- 5 -
carbonizing
catch basin
(gravity separator)
catchment basin
In wool manufacture, the process of removing
vegtable matter (e.g., straw, burs, grass) by steeping
the wool for a short time in a dilute sulfuric acid
solution, drying at high temperature, then brushing it
out by a beater.
A cistern situated at a point where waste water
discharges into a sewer, to catch and retain matter
that would not pass readily through the sewer; a
reservoir or well into which surface water may drain.
See watershed.
causeway
cesspool
cfs
channel
chlorination
chlorine-contact
chamber
chlorine demand
A raised way or road across wet or marshy ground,
across the surface of a water body, or from a shore
to an island.
An underground structure designed to hold sewage
from a residence; the waste is permitted to percolate
from the cesspool into the surrounding soil.
Cubic feet per second; a measure of discharge — the
amount of water passing a given point.
The water-filled groove through which runoff water
flows. In a narrow valley the channel may include the
entire valley floor, but ordinarily it occupies only a
small fraction of the valley.
The application of chlorine or a hypochlorite to
water for purposes of disinfection, oxidation of organic
matter, or retardation of putrefaction.
In a waste-treatment plant, a chamber in which
effluent is disinfected with chlorine before it is dis-
charged to the receiving waters.
The difference between the amount of chlorine applied
to a treated supply and the amount of free, combined,
or total available chlorine remaining at the end of the
contact period. The chlorine demand is determined
by the amount of oxidizable material present in the
water.
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- 6 -
clarifier
coagulation
In a waste-treatment plant, a basin or tank in which
solids float to the surface or settle to the bottom by
gravity.
In water treatment, the introduction of sulfate of
alumina into polluted water; this causes organic matter
to form a mass that entangles or entraps, all particu-
late matter in the water, thereby increasing the rate
of sedimentation.
COD
coliform
(ooliform bacterium)
coliform index
(coli index)
collecting sewer
colloidal matter
See oxygen demand, chemical.
Any of a number of organisms common to the in-
testinal tract of man and animals, whose presence in
waste water is an indicator of pollution.
An index of the purity of water based on a count of
its coliform bacteria.
See sewer, collecting.
In waste water, fine suspended particles that will
not settle out except very slowly, and hence require
special treatment such as sedimentation with coagu-
lants, or dialysis.
colon bacillus
combined sewer
comminutor
comprehensive
development
condensation
cone of depression
confluence
See coliform.
See sewer, combined.
In a waste -treatment plant, a device that grinds solids
to make them easier to treat.
The basin-wide development of water and land resources
for optimum beneficial uses of a river system and its
watershed.
The process by which a substance changes from the
vapor to the liquid state. The opposite process is
evaporation.
The area around a well from which water is pumped,
where the water table has been lowered by the pumping.
The point at which one stream flows into another or
where two streams converge and unite.
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- 7 -
confluent
connate water
conservation
consumptive use
(of water)
contour line
contouring
conventional
wastewater
treatment
A tributary; a stream that joins another.
Water imprisoned in sedimentary rocks at the time
of their formation and held there; sometimes called
fossil water.
Managed human ecology whereby man achieves an
optimum relationship with the resources in his
natural environment. It embraces both preservation
and wise use of natural resources.
Water use resulting in a large proportion of loss to
the atmosphere by evapotranspiratton (as in irrigation),
or by combination with a manufactured product.
An ideal line connecting all points at which the ele-
vation is equal.
Plowing and planting land across a slope, rather
than up and down hill, in order to control erosion.
See wastewater treatment, conventional.
cooling water
cooling water load
coppering
cost-benefit
analysis
coulee
critical
streamflow
Water used for cooling in an industrial or manufac-
turing process; since its temperature after use is
normally higher than that of the lake or stream into
which it is discharged, it may constitute a source of
thermal pollution.
The energy in the form of heat dissipated by cooling
water.
The treatment of water with a copper compound to
prevent algal growths that cause noxious taste and
odor.
See benefit-cost analysis.
An intermittent stream; a dry creek bed that may
run in a wet season; a steep-walled valley or ra-
vine, often having a stream at the bottom.
The amount of water available for the generation of
water power during the most adverse streamflow
period.
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crossbedding
currents
dam
dam, dry
dam, filter
dead reservoir
storage
depletion
(water)
depression
storage
desalination
dessication
The disposition of rocks in layers with minor strata
lying oblique to the main strata.
Movements or flows of water, set in motion by winds
and waves or by differences in temperature.
An artificial barrier for impounding water or sedi-
ment; a natural barrier created by the lodgment of
driftwood across a stream channel, by alluvial
deposition, by a landslide, or by the work of beavers.
A retarding structure in the headwater area of a
stream, designed for flash flood control; no perma-
nent storage of water is involved, and the area can
be farmed or grazed between flood periods.
A pervious barrier of loose stones, or stones and
brush, placed in the outlet of a water body to prevent
fish from moving out or in the inlet of a water body
to prevent fish from entering.
The volume of water in a reservoir below the lowest
outlet or operating level.
The portion of water supply withdrawn or intercepted
that is used consumptively.
The water contained in minor natural depressions in
the land surface, such as puddles.
Total or partial removal of salt from salt water.
Loss of water by direct evaporation, by drainage or
dredging, by escape of water through subterranean
outlets, by a drop in the groundwater level, or by
the removal or destruction of a dam.
detergent
detergent,
biodegradable
Any of a large number of synthetic water-soluble or
liquid surface-active agents for use in washing; like
soaps, they emulsify oils and hold dirt in suspension;
to the extent that they are not biodegradable, they
create long-term pollution problem.
One that decomposes quickly as a result of the action
of organisms, eliminating foam in waste water. Bio-
degradable is defined as having at least 90 percent
surfactant reduction, or as having surfactant concen-
tration no higher than 0. 5 mg/1.
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- 9 -
dew point
dialysis
diatomaceous
earth
(diatomite)
digester
dike
The temperature at which the atmosphere, being
cooled, becomes saturated with water vapor; by
condensation the water vapor is deposited as drops
of dew.
See electrodialysis.
A fine inert siliceous material resembling chalk,
through which effluent is filtered in a sewage
treatment plant to remove solids.
In a waste-treatment plant, a closed tank that de-
creases the volume of solids and stabilizes raw
sludge by bacterial action into a material that can
be disposed of.
An artificial embankment constructed to hold a body
of water so as to prevent flooding of the adjoining
land or to prevent inflow into the water body of un-
desirable water.
diluent
dilution ratio
(dilution factor)
discharge
dissolved
oxygen
(DO)
A diluting agent.
The ratio of the water of a stream to the incoming
waste; the capacity of a stream to assimilate waste
is partially dependent upon the dilution ratio; in a
waste-treatment plant design, the dilution ratio is
the ratio of the maximum waste flow actually treated
to the dry weather flow of the plant.
The volume of water that passes through a given cross-
section of a channel during a unit of time. This flow,
measured in cubic feet per second, is the amount of
water fed to the stream from surface and groundwater
runoff. Discharge varies according to velocity of
flow, which in turn depends upon gradient (down-
stream slope, usually expressed in feet per mile),
volume of water, load of rock particles being carried,
shape of the channel, and cross-sectional area of the
channel.
The oxygen freely available in water. In unpolluted
water, oxygen is usually present in amounts of 10
ppm or less. Adequate dissolved oxygen is necessary
for the life of fish and other aquatic organisms. About
3-5 ppm is the lowest limit for support of fish life
over a long period of time.
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- 10 -
dissolved
solids
(PS)
diversion
divide
(drainage divide)
DO
doctrine of
appropriation
{priority of rights)
domestic use
{of water)
drainage area
(drainage basin)
drainage divide
draw
drawdown
dry farming
dry lake
The total amount of dissolved material, organic and
inorganic, contained in water or wastes. Excessive
dissolved solids can make water unsuitable for indus-
trial uses, unpalatable for drinking, and even cathartic.
Potable water supplies may have dissolved solid con-
tent from 20 to 1000 mg/1, but sources which have
more than 500 mg/1 are not recommended by the
U. S. Public Health Service.
The taking of water from a water body by way of a
canal, pipe, or other conduit.
The boundary between one drainage basin and another;
the line separating two watersheds.
See dissolved oxygen.
The doctrine that whcever puts water to a beneficial
use may continue to take it so long as the use does
not conflict with use by someone with an earlier
claim to the same source: "First in time, first in
right. " In the seventeen western states this doctrine
applies either exclusively or as a hybrid appropration-
riparian right doctrine.
Water use in homes and on lawns, including use for
laundry, washing cars, cooling, and swimming pools.
See watershed.
Seg divide.
A tributary valley or coulee, that usually discharges
water only after a rainstorm.
The lowering of the water level in a well and in the
adjacent water table as a result of withdrawal by pump-
ing; a drop in the water level of a reservoir.
A method of farming without irrigation in an area of
limited rainfall, the land being treated so as to con-
serve the moisture it contains.
The site of a former lake, which need not be literally
dry, but may support marsh or even aquatic vegetation.
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- 11 -
dry-weather flow
DS
dystrophic
effluent
effluent charge
electrodialysis
emergent
(emersed)
aquatic plants
enteric virus
ephemeral stream
erosion
estuary
eutrophic
The rate at which waste water flows through sewage
treatment plants during periods when no storm run-
off enters the sewers.
See dissolved solids.
(Of a lake) brownish, with much dissolved humus
matter, a small bottom fauna, and a notably high
oxygen consumption.
A substance that flows out; an outflowing branch of
a stream or lake; the liquid that flows out of a waste-
treatment planto
A water fee set to compensate downstream water
users for all damages caused by an upstream user's
polluting discharge.
A process whereby water flows through an electrically-
charged stack of ion-permeable membranes; mineral
salts separate into positive and negative ions that
migrate through the membranes, leaving the water
behind.
Rooted plants, such as the bulrush and cattail, that
grow in shallow water with a portion of their stems
and leaves rising above the water surface.
Any virus known to be excreted in quantity in feces;
infectious hepatitis virus is such a virus.
See intermittent stream.
The wearing away of land surface by various natural
agencies, the most important being water, in the form
of seas, rivers, rain, glacial ice, hoarfrost, and
melting snow.
The mouth of a river, where tidal effects are evident
and where fresh water and sea water mix.
(Of a lake) rich in dissolved nutrients, but frequently
shallow and with seasonal oxygen deficiency below a
certain level.
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- 12 -
eutrophication
evaporation
The normally slow aging process by which a lake
evolves into marsh and ultimately becomes com-
pletely filled with detritus and disappears. In
the course of this process the lake becomes overly
rich in dissolved nutrients (for example, nitrogen
and phosphorus), so that an excessive development
of algae results. First the water becomes murky,
then noxious odors and unsightly scums appear.
In the lower layers dissolved oxygen levels become
depressed, and bottom-dwelling fauna change from
clean-water forms to pollution-tolerant forms.
The process by which a substance changes from the
liquid to the gas or vapor state. The opposite pro-
cess is condensation.
e vapotr anspi ration
exotic stream
Water loss through evaporation (from soil and sur-
face water bodies) and transpiration (from plants).
A perennial stream that flows through a desert re-
gion but has its source in an area outside the
desert. Typically it loses volume through evapora-
tion and seepage, and has few or no tributaries as it
crosses the desert. Examples include the Nile and
the Colorado.
extinction, lake
farm pond
fault
The gradual permanent loss of the water or water
surface of a lake by the encroachment of vegetation,
transforming the lake into a bog, marsh, or swamp.
A shallow structure for the impoundment of water to
meet agricultural needs, such as irrigation, stock
watering, spraying, and fire protection; the pond site
may be a natural depression deepened to store surface
runoff or utilize groundwater, or it may be created by
building a dam on a small stream; it may be temporary
or permanent, and may provide collateral recreational
benefits such as fishing, boating, bathing, wildlife
habitat, picnicking, and aesthetic values.
A fracture in the earth's crust along which movement
has taken place and where the rock strata on the two
sides therefore do not match.
fault plane
A surface along which a fault has taken place.
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- 13 -
fertile water body
filter-press cake
filtration
finger lake
fish kill
fish ladder
floating matter
(in waste water)
flocculation
flood
flood, annual
A water body that has a prolific growth of aquatic
plants and an abundance of aquatic fauna; extreme
acidity, alkalinity, salinity, or the presence of
toxic matter may interfere with the population of
a water body.
A residual waste product (as, for example, from
the process of grease recovery following the wool
scouring process); filter-press cake may contain
organic matter, dirt, grit, or other residue.
In waste treatment, the mechanical process that
removes particulate matter by separating water
from solid material, usually by passing it through
sand.
A long narrow glacial lake.
The destruction of fish in a water body — in winter,
due to prolonged ice and snow cover or freezing of
the water; in summer, due to oxygen dificiency re-
sulting from excessive organic matter; in any season,
due to toxic pollutants or disease.
A device to facilitate the movement of migrating fish
over a dam; it may consist of a stairlike series of
small ponds connected by flowing water.
Froth, oil, and floating solids. Froth results from
detergent cleaning, certain mineral flotation pro-
cesses, pulp and paper manufacture, and municipal
sewage. Oil results from chemical processes, re-
fining, machinery lubrication, and metalworking.
Floating solids can be pulp or textile fibers, fine
coke, food pulps, bark, or sawdust.
In wastewater treatment, a process that causes ag-
gregation or coalescence of solid matter into small
lumps or loose clusters.
Any stream flow that greatly exceeds the average
stream flow, whether or not it overtops the channel
banks.
The maximum daily flow during 12 consecutive
months, that is, the highest daily flood peak for a
year of record.
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- 14 -
flood, average annual
flood, flash
flood crest
flood damage
flood event
flood peak, daily
flood peak,
momentary
flood plain
flood stage
flotation
flowmeter
The mean of the annual floods during a period of
record.
A sudden and violent flood after a heavy rain.
The highest elevation reached by flood waters in a
flood event. It is commonly measured in feet
above an accepted datum, such as flood stage.
Economic loss caused by flood, including inunda-
tion, erosion, and sediment deposition; the loss
may be evaluated in terms of cost of replacement,
repair, or rehabilitation; decrease in market or
sales value; or resulting decrease in income or
production.
A series of flows constituting a distinct progressive
rise culminating in a crest, together with the reces-
sion that follows the crest.
The maximum flow on any one day during a flood
event.
The maximum rate of flow during a flood event;
usually this is the flow at the time flood crest is
reached.
The lowland that borders a river, usually dry but
subject to flooding when the stream overflows its
banks.
That elevation of the water surface (selected by local
usage or by an investigator) above which the stream
is considered to be in flood. Commonly it is the
stage at which damage begins.
In waste treatment, the collection of substances im-
mersed in waste water by taking advantage of differ-
ences in specific gravities, or else by entrapment of
solid particles with air causing them to rise to the
surface for subsequent disposal.
In a wastewater treatment plant, a meter that indicates
the rate at which waste water is flowing through the
plant.
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- 15 -
flume
fluoride
formation
fold
force main
formation
fulling
funnel access
geyser
grass waterway
gravity separator
gridding (of water)
A ravine or gorge with a stream running through it;
an inclined channel for conveying water for various
uses (for example, irrigation); a channel placed in
a stream of water to measure the volume or rate of
flow.
A chemical that in concentration of approximately
1.0 mg/1 is a preventive of tooth decay. Fluoride
may occur naturally in water, or may be added in
controlled amounts. Waters that contain excessive
fluoride require defluoridation to reduce the fluoride
content to an acceptable level.
A bend in rock strata caused by movements of the
earth's crust. When the compression is relatively
small, the strata are forced into a series of arches
and troughs. (See anticline and sync line.)
A pipe in which waste water is carried under pressure.
A unit of rocks, readily identified and mapped, usually
consisting of the same kind of rock and implying the
same environment of deposition.
In wool manufacture, a finishing process whereby
piece goods are soaked in a soap solution and put
through a series of roller mills until they have become
felted and shrunken to increase their body and density.
A small parcel of riparian land deeded collectively to
a group of land owners who have no frontage bordering
the water, so as to give them legal access to the water.
A thermal spring that erupts intermittently.
An area of grass over which runoff water can move in
a thin sheet across the land surface and thus proceed
more slowly than it does when it moves across culti-
vated crops, hence causing less erosion.
See catch basin.
Distribution of water by pipeline. On a regional basis
this may be done so as to achieve a more efficient ad-
justment between supply and demand than is found in
nature.
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- 16 -
grit-removal chamber
groundwater
gully erosion
hardness (of water)
head of navigation
headrace
herbicide
hexane solubles
hot spring
house sewer
connection
humus
hydrogen-ion
concentration
hydrologic cycle
In a waste-treatment plant, a chamber used for
settling out stones, cinders, and sand.
Water in the pores and crevices of the earth's man-
tle rock which has entered them chiefly as rain
water percolating down from the surface — as op-
posed to the rain water which runs off in streams;
all water below the water table.
The widening, deepening, and cutting back of small
channels and waterways due to erosion.
A measure of the calcium and magnesium salts
present in water. Soft water is that with less than
60 parts of salts to the million (ppm); temporary
water is that with 60 to 120 ppm of salts; permanent
water is that with salts in excess of 120 ppm. (Other
salts that may occur in water include those of iron,
aluminum, manganese, strontium, zinc.)
The farthest point up a river to be reached by ves-
sels for the purpose of trade.
The pipe or chute by which water falls into the tur-
bine of a power plant.
An agent (usually a chemical) used to destory or in-
hibit vegetation; a selective weed killer that does not
injure crop plants.
Fats, oils, greases.
See thermal spring.
The sewer that connects a house to the sewer in the
adjacent street.
Organic matter in or on a soil, composed of partly
or fully decomposed bits of plant or animal matter.
see pH.
The continual exchange of moisture between the earth
and the atmosphere, consisting of evaporation, con-
densation, precipitation (rain or snow), stream run-
off, absorption into the soil, evaporation, condensa-
tion, precipitation, etc.
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- 17 -
hydrology
hydrolysis
hydrophytes
hypertrophic water
impermeable rock
(impervious rock)
impoundment
infiltration
influent water
integrated woolen
mill
intercepting
sewer
interfluve
interior drainage
intermediate
treatment
The science of the behavior of water in the atmo-
sphere on the earth's surface, and underground.
The chemical reaction of water with another sub-
stance in which hydrogen and hydroxyl are added to
the other substance, forming usually two or more
new compounds.
Plants that grow only in water or very wet earth.
Water of high nutrient content.
Rock which, being non-porous (for example, un-
fissured granite) or practically so (for example,
clay), does not allow water to soak into it or pass
through it freely; non-porous rock may be pervious,
however, owing to joints and fissures.
A body of water, such as a farm or ranch pond,
formed by confining and storing the water (for ex-
ample, by a gully-control structure or a highway-
fill dam).
The flow of a fluid into a substance through pores
or small openings. The common use of the word in
hydrology is to denote the flow of water into soil
material.
Water contributing to the zone of saturation and
thereby sustaining or raising the water table.
One in which all functions of wool processing are
carried out from beginning to end: opening and
scouring, spinning, dyeing, and finishing.
See sewer, intercepting.
The ridge between two adjacent river valleys.
See internal drainage.
Waste-water treatment such as aeration or chemical
treatment, supplementary to primary treatment.
Such treatment removes substantial percentages of
very finely divided particulate matter, in addition to
the suspended solids removed by primary treatment.
Supplementary processing improves the efficiency of
treatment so that about 60 percent of both BOD and
suspended solids are removed.
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- 18 -
intermittent stream
internal drainage
interstices
investment tax
credit
iron bacteria
irrigation
kier
lacustrine
leaching
One that carries water runoff only in times of rain-
fall and remains as a dry channel during the rest of
the year.
Drainage in which the waters have no outlet and so do
not reach the sea.
The openings or pore spaces in rock; in an aquifer,
they are filled with water.
In pollution abatement, reduction in a company's tax
by a given percent of the sum invested in pollution
abatement equipment and facilities.
Bacteria that either utilize iron as a source of energy
or cause its dissolution or deposition. The former
obtain energy by oxidizing ferrous iron to ferric
iron, which is precipitated as ferric hydrate; the
latter, without oxidizing ferrous iron, alter environ-
mental conditions in such a way as to cause it to be
dissolved or deposited.
The artificial distribution of water on the land in
order to (1) facilitate the cultivation of crops where
otherwise, owing to a deficiency of rainfall, agri-
culture would be impossible or difficult, or (2) in-
crease or enhance the yield in areas where rainfall
is adequate but supplementary distribution of water
at certain critical periods in the development of the
crop is advantageous.
A crack formed along a plane of weakness (joint plane)
in a mass of rock; it is unlike a fault in that little or
no movement has taken place between the blocks.
A vat in which fibers, yarns, and fabrics are boiled,
bleached, or dyed.
Relating to a lake.
See linear alkylate sulfonate.
See sewer, lateral.
The process by which the more soluble material, such
as organic and mineral salts, is washed out of a layer
of soil into a lower layer by percolating rain water.
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- 19 -
levee
lignin
limnology
linear alkylate
sulfouate (LAS)
littoral
load, river
long profile
low stream-flow
augmentation
mantlerock
marsh
The natural bank of a river formed during flooding
by the deposition of silt. The natural levee is thus
the highest portion of the flood plain of a river.
Artificial levees may be constructed along the river
banks to keep the water of a river within its proper
channel.
A woody plant substance often discharged as a waste
during the manufacture of paper pulp.
The study of the physical, chemical, meteorologi-
cal, and biological conditions in fresh waters
(especially ponds and lakes).
A surface-active compound in synthetic detergents
that decomposes readily by bacterial action where
oxygen is present.
The shallow waters that extend along the edge of a
lake or sea.
The solid matter carried along by a river, includ-
ing dissolved material, suspended material (mainly
mud, silt, and sand), and the larger, heavier ma-
terial carried along the river bed. The maximum or
full load of a river depends on its velocity and vol-
ume, and on the size of the particles constituting the
load. When the limit of the possible load has been
reached, any further addition involves the dropping
of an equivalent portion of the original load.
See profile, river.
The release of water from dam-controlled reser-
voirs when stream level is low.
The layer of loose rock fragments, the surface part
of which is called soil, that covers most of the
earth's land area and varies in thickness from place
to place.
A tract of soft, wet land, usually low-lying and
partly or completely under water; the extreme
dampness is due to the impermeable nature of the
soil (such as clay) and the poor drainage. (Compare
swamp.)
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- 20 -
maximum capacity
meander
mechanical
screen
mill scale
mining
monocline
muck
In waste-treatment plants, either the maximum
rate at which waste water can be put through a
plant hydraulically, or some lower rate estab-
lished by the management (such as the maximum
rate at which waste water can be treated without
seriously interrupting the treatment process).
One of the curves in a river course that swings
from side to side in wide loops as it progresses
across flat country. A meander is continually
being accentuated by the river itself, the concave
bank being worn away by the current while solid
material is being deposited at the convex bank.
See bar screen.
Million gallons per day.
Milligrams per liter.
A relatively small impoundment, usually behind a
man-made dam, used to supply power to operate a
mill.
In steel manufacture, the film of scale that results
when the surface of steel oxidizes during heating.
This scale must be removed from the metal before
it is rolled. It is generally removed by directing a
high-pressure water spray onto the metal surface
immediately ahead of the rolls; the scale drops into
a flume and is carried by a stream of water to a
scale-recovery pit where it settles to the bottom;
any remaining scale can be trapped by baffles at the
outlet.
The depletion of a resource without making any pro-
vision for replenishment.
A fold in rock strata in only one direction; the incline
may be in the direction of becoming steeper or more
gentle.
The usually blackish, fine-textured, and largely or-
ganic deposits at the bottom of a water body.
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-21-
multiple use
multiple-purpose
development
natural
resource
neuston
nitrogenous
wastes
nonconsumptive use
(of water)
nutrient
oligotrophic
on-site use
(of water)
The management of land and water resources taking
into account the many human demands on them with
a view to all necessary and desirable uses; these
demands change in nature and number through time.
In water projects, development that takes into
account the use and control of water in all possible
aspects: irrigation, power, flood control, domestic
and industrial water supply, pollution control,
navigation, recreation, fish and wildlife. The first
multiple-purpose project authorized and designed
as such was the Boulder Canyon Project (Hoover
Dam), 1928.
A resource such as air, climate, fish, minerals,
scenic beauty, soil, sunshine, vegetation, water,
wildlife. Some natural resources have a ma rket
value (for example, timber), others have a "non-
economic" value (for example, scenic beauty).
The community of minute organisms living in the
surface film of wat er.
Wastes of animal or plant origin that contain a
significant concentration of nitrogen.
Water use in which only a small portion is lost to
the atmosphere by evapotranspiration or by being
combined with a manufactured product. Noncon-
sumptive use returns to the stream or ground
approximately the same amount of water as is
diverted or used.
A chemical substance (an element or an inorganic
compound, e.g., nitrogen or phosphate) absorbed
by a green plant and used in organic synthesis.
(Of a lake) weak in production of plant life and
typically very clean and clear; in the past the
Great Lakes have been oligotrophic.
Chiefly (1) water-oriented recreation (such as
swimming, fishing, water-skiing, diving, boating,
water-fowl hunting, as well as picnicking, walking,
and driving), which requires the presence of water,
or (2) flood control facilities, which require space
or empty capacity to accommodate water.
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- 22 -
opening
osmosis
outfall sewer
over-enrichment
owf
oxbow lake
oxygen demand,
biochemical
(oxygen-depleting
effect; BOD)
oxygen demand,
chemical (COD)
oxygenation
package plant
In wool manufacture, the gentle mechanical sepa-
ration of fibers to remove sand, grit, grass, and
other foreign materials.
The flow or diffusion through a semipermeable
membrane separating unlike substances in the
course of which the concentrations of the com-
ponents on the two sides of the membrane are
equalized; especially the passage of solvent
(usually water), in distinction from the passage
of solute.
See sewer, outfall.
See eutrophication.
"On the weight of the fiber" — in the textile in-
dustry, a basis for calculating the polluting char-
acteristics of different operations and different
fibers.
A lake formed when a meandering river, having
bent in almost a complete circle, cuts across the
narrow neck of land between the two stretches and
leaves a backwater; silt is gradually deposited by
the river at the entrance to this backwater till it
is finally separated from the river and becomes a
lake.
The amount of oxygen required for aerobic bacteria
to oxidize completely' the organic decomposable mat-
ter in water within a specified time and at a given
temperature—an index to the degree of organic
pollution in the water. When discharged to a
watercourse, waste containing BOD constituents
will consume dissolved oxygen in the water; the
BOD indicates the rate at which the oxygen is used
up. Waters that receive high BOD waste undergo
reduction of oxygen and consequent damage to
aquatic life.
The amount of oxygen required to oxidize completely
the inorganic oxidizable compounds present.
Impregnation or combination with oxygen.
A prefabricated or prebuilt wastewater treatment
plant.
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- 23 -
parent material
parshall (parshall
flume)
pathogenic
pc/1
PE
percability
perched water
body
percolation
percolation, deep
perennial stream
periphyton
permeable rock
(pervious rock)
permeability
The disintegrated rock material that underlies and
generally gives rise to soil.
A device for measuring the flow in conduits by ob-
serving the difference in pressure on opposite sides
of a partial obstruction.
Causing or capable of causing disease.
Picocuries per liter.
See population equivalent.
Permeability.
A suspended, isolated body of groundwater occurring
in a saturated zone, separated from the main body of
groundwater by unsaturated, impermeable rock.
The isolated body has its own local water table—a
perched water table—below which shallow wells can
obtain water.
The movement of water through the pores or inter-
stices of a rock or soil.
The water that passes below the root zone of vegeta-
tion.
One that carries water all through the year.
Organisms (including both plants and animals) that
commonly grow on submerged surfaces such as
stones, wood, aquatic plants, or other objects,
forming more or less continuous slimy or woolly
felted coatings on these objects.
Rock, either porous (such as sandstone) or fis-
sured, that allows water to soak into it and pass
through it freely.
The capacity of rock or mantle to permit water to
pass through it. This depends on the volume of the
openings and pores, and also on how these openings
are connected one to another. In porous rocks it
varies roughly as the square of the diameter of the
particles of the material.
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- 24 -
pesticide
pH
phenol
photic zone
pickle liquor
pickling
picocurie
plankton
pollutant,
refractory
An agent (usually a chemical) used to destroy pests.
Pesticides present in ground and surface waters as
a result of direct application, runoff, percolation,
or manufacturing discharge may have grave adverse
effects on water quality. Careless use of pesticides
may result in fish kills.
Hydrogen ion concentration which reflects the bal-
ance between acids and alkalies. The extreme
readings are 0 and 14. The pH of most natural
waters falls within the range 4 to 9. A pH of 7. 0
indicates neutral water. A 6.5 reading is slightly
acid; an 8.5 reading is alkaline. Slight decrease in
pH may greatly increase the toxicity of substances
such as cyanides, sulfides, and most metals. Slight
increase may greatly increase the toxicity of pol-
lutants such as ammonia. Alkaline water will tend
to form a scale; acid water is corrosive; good water
should be nearly neutral.
Carbolic acid, an acidic compound that is a power-
ful caustic poison.
The upper zone of a body of water in which sufficient
light is available for photosynthesis. (Compare
profundal zone.)
In steel manufacture, a dilute acid solution used to
clean steel.
The process of immersing hot steel in a bath of hot
dilute acid to prepare it for being cold-rolled and
finished by galvanizing and tin-plating.
A unit of radioactive disintegration; 1 picocurie =
10"*^ curie = 2. 22 disintegrations per minute.
The floating or weakly swimming plant and animal
life of a body of water, consisting mostly of minute
forms but including also some larger forms (such
as jellyfish) with weak powers of locomotion.
One that resists treatment.
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- 25 -
pollution (of water)
pollution,
industrial waste
pollution, natural
pollution, sewage
pollution, thermal
pollution indicator
organism
pondage
population equivalent
(PE)
Contamination or other alteration of the physical,
chemical, or biological properties of water, in-
cluding changes in temperature, taste, color, or
odor of the water, or the discharge into the water
of any liquid, gaseous, radioactive, solid, or other
substance that may create a nuisance or render such
water detrimental or injurious to public health,
safety, or welfare. Broadly, pollution means any
change in water quality that impairs it for the
subsequent user.
A broad category of wastes from manufacturing
operations or processes defined by government as
noxious. They include floating matter, settleable
solids, colloidal matter, dissolved solids, toxic
substances, and sludge.
Soil, mineral, or bacterial impurities picked up
by water from the earth's surface, apart from any
human activity.
Raw or partially-treated domestic waste.
Impairment of water through temperature change
due to geothermal, industrial, or other causes.
A plant or animal form, such as the rat-tailed
maggot or blue-green algae, that thrives in
polluted water.
The amount of water stored behind a dam of
relatively small storage capacity used to control
the flow of a river.
An expression of the relative strength of a waste
(usually industrial) in terms of its equivalent in
domestic waste, expressed as the population that
would produce the equivalent domestic waste. A
population equivalent of 160 million persons means
the pollutional effect equivalent to raw sewage from
160 million persons; 0.17 pounds BOD (the oxygen
demand of untreated wastes from one person) = 1 PE.
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- 26 -
porosity
potable
precipitation
pressure filter
primary wastewater
treatment
process water
profile, river
profile, soil
profundal zone
pumped storage
The capacity of rock or soil to contain water.
The amount of water that rock can contain de-
pends on the open spaces between the grains or
cracks that can fill with water. Well-sorted soil
is more porous than poorly-sorted soil. Soil is
well sorted if the grains are all about the same size
(as in the case of gravel or sand); spaces account
for a large proportion of the total volume. Soil is
poorly sorted if the grains are not all the same
size; spaces between larger grains will fill with
small grains instead of with water. Poorly-sorted
rock thus holds less water than well-sorted.
Suitable for drinking.
Parts per million. In water analysis, ppm im-
plies a weight/weight (not a volume/volume) ratio.
Any form of water, whether liquid or solid, that
falls to the ground from the atmosphere; it includes
drizzle, rain, snow, snow pellets, snow grains, ice
crystals, ice pellets, and hail; the amount of precipi-
tation is usually expressed in inches of equivalent
liquid water depth at a given point over a specified
period of time.
A filter in which the pressure on the input side of the
filter medium is greater than atmospheric pressure.
See wastewater treatment, primary.
All water (liquid or vapor) that comes in contact with
a product being manufactured.
A section or curve showing the slope of a river from
its source to its mouth.
A section through the soil showing the different hori-
zons or layers extending downward from the surface
to the parent material.
The deep region of a water body that lies below the
light-controlled limit of plant growth. (Compare
photic zone.)
Watei* pumped into a storage reservoir during pe-
riods of low electric-power demand to be used to
generate power during peak demand periods.
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- 27 -
pumping station
rain shadow
rainwash
rated capacity
reaction turbine
receiving waters
recharge area
recirculating cooling
system
regimen, stream
A station at which waste water is pumped to a
higher level. In most sewers pumping is unneces-
sary; waste water flows by gravity to the treatment
plant.
An area that has a relatively light average rainfall
due to its situation on the lee side of a range of
mountains or hills where it is sheltered from the
prevailing rain-bearing winds. On the windward
side the rainfall is heavy, owing to the forced as-
cent of the moisture-laden air; as the air descends
on the lee side it is warmed and dried, so that little
rain is deposited there.
A thin sheet of water flowing evenly downslope,
quickly concentrated by converging slopes into the
shortest and steepest routes downward. This the
first step in the formation of a stream.
The rate of wastewater flow that a treatment plant is
considered capable of treating on a continuous basis
with proper disposal of sludge and no loss in efficiency.
A type of water wheel in which water turns the blades
of a rotor, which then drives an electrical generator
or other machine.
The bodies of water that receive effluent waste water
from treatment plants.
An area in which an aquifer receives water by force
of gravity, usually where a permeable layer lies
close to the surface.
In a manufacturing or processing plant, a system
that reduces the temperature of used water in a
cooling tower by evaporating a small percent of the
recirculating stream; although the evaporated water
is permanently removed from the supply, overall
water withdrawal is reduced to a small percent of
what it would otherwise be; discharge of contaminated
water may be reduced to as little as 1 percent.
Fluctuations (usually seasonal) through a norm of
the flood-water and low-water states of a stream,
with the delicate channel adjustments that accompany
these systematic changes.
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- 28 -
reservoir
reservoir, detention
or retarding
reservoir sediment
storage
return flow
(irrigation)
"reverse incentive"
reverse osmosis
riparian right
river-basin
concept
A pond, lake, or basin, either natural or artifi-
cial, for the storage, regulation, and control of
water.
A basin above a dam, constructed for the tem-
porary storage of stream flow and surface runoff.
The natural accumulation of sediment in a reservoir
that must be taken into account when calculating
reservoir capacity.
That part of irrigation water that is not consumed
by evapotranspiration and returns to its source or
runs off into another body of water.
In effect, a penalty connected with water use, such
as a user charge (based on the amount of water
withdrawn from the municipal supply) or an effluent
charge (based on the quantity and quality of wastes
discharged into a watercourse) to cover damages
caused by a user's pollutants.
A process in which, if pressure is put on the con-
centrated side of a liquid system in which liquids
with different concentrations of mineral salts are
separated by a semipermeable membrane, mole-
cules of pure water pass out of the concentrated so-
lution to the weak or fresh-water side (contrary to
the case of normal osmosis).
The right of an owner of land bordering on a stream
or lake to have access to and use of the shore and
water. The use of water is restricted to riparian
landowners, and the right is automatic, not created
by use nor forfeited through disuse. A riparian water
right is not proprietary as is a right to land, but
usufructuary—riparian owners enjoy the privilege of
using the water without owning it.
The notion that each river system, from its head-
waters to its mouth, is a single unit and should be
treated as such. This concept recognizes the inter-
relationship of resource elements in a single basin,
and assumes that multiple-purpose development can
take this interrelationship into account. It extends
the principle of ecological balance to the whole of the
area and its occupants.
GPO 817—435—4
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- 29 -
rock
runoff
sanitary sewer
scouring
screening
sea level
secondary clarifier
(secondary settling tank)
secondary wastewater
treatment
To a hydrologist, both hard consolidated formations
(such as sandstone, limestone, granite, or lava rocks),
and loose unconsolidated sediments (such as gravel,
sand, and clay).
That portion of rainfall or melted snow which ultimately
reaches surface streams. The portion which flows
off the surface, without sinking into the ground, is
called the immediate runoff; the part which sinks into
the ground but eventually returns to the surface by
seepage and from springs is called delayed runoff.
Runoff is faster and greater during heavy rain than
during protracted drizzle, on clay soils than on sandy
soils, on frozen soils than on frostless soils, in treeless
areas than in forests. The ratio between runoff and
rainfall varies considerably with climatic conditions.
See sewer,separate.
The removal of earth or rock by the action of running
water or of a glacier; in wool manufacture, the
removal of foreign matter from wool by propelling it
through a series of bowls and squeeze rolls by means
of reciprocating arms; scouring wastes are the strongest
polluting materials in the whole textile industry and the
major factor to be considered in dealing with the waste
problem at an integrated woolen mill.
In waste treatment, the removal of solid waste materials
from waste water by a screen.
The level of the surface of the sea between high and low
tide, used as a standard in measuring heights and depths.
In a waste-treatment plant, a basin or tank that receives
liquid from a trickling filter or an activated sludge tank;
here settleable solids are removed by sedimentation.
See wastewater treatment, secondary.
sediment
Fragmental mineral material transported or deposited
by water or air; the material that settles to the bottom
of a liquid.
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- 30 -
sedimentation
sedimentation tank
seepage
seiche
senescent lake
separate sewer
septic tank
settleable solids
settling tank
(settling basin)
sewage
sewage lagoon
In water treatment, an early stage in the purification
of raw polluted water whereby suspended particles in
the water are allowed to settle.
See clarifier.
The slow oozing of groundwater out onto the earth's
surface, as distinct from the more pronounced flow
of a spring.
A short-term local oscillation in the surface of a
lake or land-locked sea which may be caused by a
persistent strong wind or a change in atmospheric
pressure.
A lake nearing extinction, especially through the
accumulation of the remains of aquatic vegetation.
(See extinction, lake.)
See sewer, separate.
A tank inwhich the organic solid matter of continuously
flowing waste water is deposited and retained until
it has been disintegrated by anaerobic bacteria.
In water or wastes, bits of debris and fine matter
heavy enough to settle out.
A tank (basin) in which settleable solids are removed
by gravity.
See waste water.
A shallow pond, three to five feet deep, where natural
biological processes purify waste water to a degree
comparable to that accomplished in a secondary treat-
ment plant. The organic matter is broken down into
simple compounds by bacterial action; these decompo-
sition products are utilized by algae in the course of
photosynthesis to prodi ce oxygen, as well as additional
algal mass; the oxygen then constitutes the supply needed
for aerobic bacterial decomposition. The load of total
organic matter that a pond can assimilate depends on
many factors. Shallow ponds (three feet) are more
effective than deeper ones; those exposed to wind move-
ments are more effective than sheltered ones; other
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- 31 -
sewage-treatment
plant
sewage works
sewer
sewer, collecting
sewer, combined
sewer, intercepting
sewer, lateral
sewer, outfall
sewer, separate
sewer, trunk
sewer system
sewerage
silt
critical factors are temperature and available sunlight,
which vary with climate. Loads of 10 to 120 pounds BOD
per acre per day have been recorded assimilated in
such ponds.
See wastewater treatment plant.
Wastewater installations, including both the sewer
systems and the wastewater treatment plant.
A conduit to carry off water and waste matter.
A sewer that collects waste water from lateral
sewers and connects to a trunk sewer.
A sewer that carries both waste water and storm water.
During dry weather the combined sewer carries all
waste water to a treatment plant. During a storm,
only part of the flow is intercepted, and the remainder
goes directly into the receiving stream untreated.
A sewer that catches waste water before it empties
into a waterway, and transports it to a treatment plant.
A street sewer that serves a limited number of properties.
Lateral sewers usually discharge into a collecting
sub-main, main, or trunk sewer.
A sewer that carries waste water to a point of final
discharge.
A sewer that carries waste water but excludes storm
and surface waters.
A sewer that transports waste water from collecting
sewers to the treatment plant. A trunk sewer does not
ordinarily service individual properties, but rather
receives tributary branches and serves a larger territory.
The system of sewers and related facilites for collection,
transportation, and pumping of waste water.
See sewage works.
Unconsolidated sedimentary rock consisting of particles
finer than sand and coarser than clay.
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- 32 -
sludge
sludge, activated
sludge-digestion tank
sludge-drying bed
sluice
snowline
The solid matter removed from waste water — a
concentration of solids thick enough to give its fluid
carrier a paste-like consistency. Sludge includes both
organic matter, which can be burned, and other matter
which can not. Municipal sewage, food processing,
and chemical plants, refineries, and pulp and paper
mills produce organic sludge. The noncombustibles
are usually water-softener sludge, chemical precipi-
tates, pigments, sand and slit, and miscellaneous
debris.
In waste treatment, sludge containing living organisms
that multiply and in doing so reduce impurities in the
waste water, thereby making good a deficiency of oxygen
and removing odor and taste caused by destroyed bacteria.
See digester.
A bed on which the humus-like residue from the digester
is dried; after being dried the sludge may be burned
or dumped.
An artificial passage for water, fitted with a valve or
gate for stopping or regulating the flow; a regulating
device for holding water back or letting it flow in or out;
a conduit (natural or artificial) to drain or carry off
surplus water; a long inclined trough or flume, usually
on the ground.
A watery mixture or suspension of insoluble matter
(such as mud, lime, wood pulp).
The line of elevation on a mountain or hill slope that
marks the lower limit of perpetual snow; below this
line, any snow melts during the summer. The altitude
of the snowline varies considerably in different regions;
in general it occurs progressively lower from the tropics
to the polar regions. Its altitude depends largely on
the summer temperatures, that determine the rate of
melting. Another important factor is the total amount
of winter snow; the snowline will be higher in a dry
region than a wet region. A third important factor is
exposure; the snowline will usually be higher on the
southern than the northern side of a mountain. Furthermoref
the snowline will be higher on a steep slope, where much
of the snow descends as avalanches, than on a gentle
slope, where most of it lies where it falls till it melts.
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social costs and
benefits
soil moisture
solute
solvent
sparging
specific conductance
(of water)
specific yield
(of water)
sphagnum
spring
SS
stablization pond
stage construction
Considerations of long-range societal values at the
regional or national level which might not be taken
into account in the profit and loss statement of an
individual farmer, forest operator, industrialist,
or other private citizen.
Water diffused in the upper layers of the soil from
which it is taken by plants for transpiration or from
which it evaporates into the atmosphere.
A dissolved substance, especially the smaller com-
ponent of a solution.
A substance capable of or used in dissolving one or
more other substances; the liquid component of a
solution, present in greater amount than the solute.
Heating a liquid by means of live steam entering
through a perforated or nozzled pipe (used, for example,
to coagulate blood solids in meat processing).
Measure of a water's capacity to convey an electric
current. This property is related to the total concen-
tration of the ionized substances in the water and the
temperature of the water. Most inorganic acids, which
dissociate readily in aqueous solution, will conduct an
electric current well, while organic compounds (such as
sucrose and benzene), which do not dissociate in
aqueous solution, will conduct a current poorly if at all.
The amount of water that can be obtained from the pores
or cracks of a unit volume of soil or rock.
A grayish moss growing in dense layers in bogs, that
eventually forms peat.
A continuous or intermittent flow of water from the ground.
See suspended solids.
See sewage lagoon.
In waste treatment, the building of wastewater treatment
plants in steps, so that treatment units serving a small
group of homes can be converted to other process uses
and combined with additional treatment units as additional
homes are built.
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storm drain
(storm sewer)
stream
Not flowing, and as a result deficient in oxygen.
A thick residue remaining after processed tank water
from a slaughterhouse is evaporated.
A drain (sewer) that carries storm and surface waters
and drainage, but excludes domestic and industrial
waste water other than nonpolluting cooling water.
Water and rock waste streaming toward the sea along a
more or less definite course. Each stream occupies
a valley, excavated or modified by itself, of which it
is an integral part. Most valleys are floored with rock
waste deposited by their streams, and usually these
partial fillings are saturated with water that percolates
down-valley at rates much slower than the flow of the
surface waters.
stream deposition
strip-cropping
(strip-farming)
strip-mining
structure, soil
suint
sulfur bacteria
Thelaying down of solid materials carried by a
stream, which may take the form of channel deposits,
flood deposits, bars, spits, fans, or deltas.
The growing of separate crops in successive narrow
strips that follow an approximate contour on slopes;
such planting retards wind or water erosion.
Mining near the earth's surface by stripping the over-
lying strata from the ore bed (especially applied to
coal mining near the surface).
The relation of particles or groups of particles in a
soil, which imparts to the whole soil a characteristic
manner of breaking. Soil-structure types include
crumb structure, block structure, platy structure, and
columnar structure.
The dried perspiration of sheep, deposited in wool
chiefly in combination with fatty acids and having a high
potassium salt content.
Bacteria that oxidize sulfur compounds, precipitating
sulfur or producing noxious sulfur gases such as hydrogen
sulfide. In this process they may cause damage to
concrete or other structures.
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sump
surfactant
(surface-active agent)
suspended solids
(§§)
sustained yield
swamp
syncline
synergism. pollution
tailing ponds
tannin
A depression or tank that serves as a drain or
receptacle for liquids to be salvaged or disposed of
(for example, a cesspool, an open drain for carrying
off dripping liquids, or a depression in a water channel
to facilitate the emptying of the channel).
A substance useful for its cleansing, wetting,
dispersing, or similar powers. Synthetic detergents
contain surfactants.
Solids suspended in waste water. The amount of sus-
pended solids is a measure of the strength of sewage.
The use of a renewable resource at a rate that permits
resource regeneration for use continuing undiminished
into the future (for example, timber cut so as to pro-
duce the same amount of wood each year; deer hunted
without long-range damage to the herd).
A tract of low-lying land that is saturated with moisture
and usually overgrown with vegetation. A marsh, unlike
a swamp, is ordinarily covered with water; a bog, unlike
a swamp, consists largely of decaying vegetation.
The dampness of a swamp is due to some obstruction
to normal drainage, because of the flatness of the land,
the presence of impermeable rocks, or the growth of
vegetation. A swamp is often formed in a lake basin
as it fills up; because the surface is flat the rain water
runs off very slowly, and the growth of vegetation in
the damp soil helps maintain the swampy condition.
The trough or inverted arch of a fold in rock strata.
(Compare anticline.)
The combined effect of two or more toxic substances
acting together that is more adverse than their sum
would be if each were acting separately or independently.
(Compare antagonism, pollution.)
Enclosures or basins constructed for the disposal of
mine tailings (the fine rock waste in washings from
mills after the grinding and processing of ores); they
serve as settling basins and prevent or reduce the con-
tamination of streams and other water bodies by such
waste.
A plant substance often discharged as a waste of the
tanning industry.
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terracing
(terrace
cultivation)
territorial
waters
tertiary treatment
thermal spring
timberline
toxic
substance
transpiration
tributary
A system of agricultural cultivation by which terraces
are cut into mountain or hill slopes, and retaining
walls to hold irrigation water and soil are built around
the resulting small level patches. Such cultivation is
common in mountainous areas where land is scarce
or rainfall uncertain (for example, in India, China,
and Japan).
The belt of sea adjoining a coast which is under the
jurisdiction of the nation occupying the coast.
See wastewater treatment, tertiary.
A stream of warm or hot water issuing from the
ground, often after having been heated by buried
lava and therefore commonly occurring in volcanic
regions when eruptions have ceased.
The line of elevation on a mountain or hill slope
above which trees do not grow. Its height depends
upon local as well as general conditions of climate
and soil. It is lower in the temperate than in the
tropical zone, lower on the shady than on the sunny
side of a mountain, and highest on those slopes which
provide the best protection from winds and the longest
exposure to the sun.
A substance that either directly poisons living things
or alters their environment so that they die. Examples
are cyanides found in plating and steel mill wastes,
phenols from coke and chemical operations, pesticides
and herbicides, and heavy metal salts. Another broad
group includes oxygen-consuming substances that upset
the balance of nature, such as organic matter from
food plants, pulp and paper mills, chemical plants,
and textile plants. Still another group are sulfides,
produced by oil refineries, smelters, and chemical
plants.
The process by which water vapor escapes from living
plants and enters the atmosphere.
A stream that contributes its waters to a larger stream
by discharging into it.
-5PO 817-435-3
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- 37 -
trlckling-filter
process
trunk sewer
turbidity
unconformity
underground
water
user charge
(for water)
vadose water
volatile
waste water
(sewage)
wastewater
treatment,
conventional
In wastewater treatment, a process in which the
liquid from a primary clarifier is distributed on a
bed of stones. As the waste water trickles through
to drains underneath, it comes in contact with
slime on the stones, by which organic material in
the water is oxidized and impurities are reduced.
See sewer, trunk.
An empirical measure of the optical property of the
particles of mud, clay, silt, finely divided organic
matter, or microscopic organisms suspended in
water that interfere with light transmission, causing
the light to be scattered and absorbed rather than
transmitted through the water in straight lines.
A lack of vertical continuity between layers of rock
representing a gap in the geologic record.
All water beneath the surface of the ground, including
both groundwater and vadose water, whatever its
origin.
A charge for water based on the amount withdrawn
from the public supply.
Water that lies between the water table and the
earth's surface.
Readily evaporable or vaporizable at a relatively
low temperature.
Water carrying waste from homes, businesses, and
industries. It is a liquid mixture of water and dis-
solved and suspended solids.
Wastewater treatment including screening, sedimen-
tation, coagulation, rapid sand filtration, and disin-
fection with chlorine.
wastewater
treatment,
primary
The first major (sometimes the only) treatment in a
wastewater treatment plant. It screens out some
sticks, rags, and other solids, and floats and settles
out others in settling basins. At best primary treat-
ment removes about 35 percent of the organic waste.
A primary wastewater treatment plant may consist
of the following units: bar screens or mechanical
screens; grit removal chambers; flowmeters, com-
minutors or barminutors; clarifiers or sedimentation
tanks, digesters or sludge digestion tanks; sludge
drying beds; chlorinators or chlorine contact chambers.
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-38 -
wastewater treatment,
secondary
wastewater
treatment,
tertiary
wastewater
treatment
plant
water cycle
water pollution
control plant
water power
water table
Wastewater treatment using biological methods
(bacterial action) in addition to primary treatment
by screening, sedimentation, and flotation. In
secondary treatment bacteria are used to destroy
organic wastes as the water trickles over coarse
stones. The process removes up to 90 percent of
the dissolved pollutants, but leaves many other pol-
lutants untouched. A secondary waste-treatment
plant may consist of the following units, in addition
to those of the primary treatment plant: trickling
filter; aeration or activated sludge; secondary
clarifier, secondary settling tank, final settling
tank, and final settling basin.
Wastewater treatment beyond primary and secon-
dary treatment, which may consist of extensions or
modifications of secondary treatment, additional
forms of chemical treatment, electrochemical pro-
cessing, carbon filtration, and other more complex
procedures.
A plant that reduces the harmful and unstable ele-
ments in waste water so they can be disposed of
without impairing other essential water uses.
See hydrologic cycle.
See wastewater treatment plant.
Energy obtained from natural or artificial water-
falls, either directly by turning a water wheel or
turbine, or indirectly by generating electricity in
a dynamo driven by a turbine.
The top of the zone of saturation in which all rocks
are saturated with water. The subsurface water
that lies below the water table is called ground-
water; that which lies between the water table and
the earth's surface is called vadose water.
watershed
The boundary of an area from which water drains to
a single point; in a natural basin, the area contributing
flow to a given place or a given point on a stream.
The watershed is increasingly coming to be regarded
as a social and economic unit for community develop-
ment and conservation of water, soil, forests, and
related resources.
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water-spreader
weathering
weep hole
(weeper)
weir
weir basin
(weir trough)
well
wet scrubber
Any method of replenishing groundwater. The
design and operation of a spreading system are
somewhat like those of an irrigation system, ex-
cept that water is encouraged to percolate rapidly
underground instead of being retained within the
root zone of irrigated crops.
The mechanical, chemical, and organic decompo-
sition of rock material under the influence of
climatic factors—water, temperature change, and
air.
A hole in a retaining structure to drain off ac-
cumulated water that might otherwise induce ex-
cessive pressure on the structure.
A fence or enclosure set in a waterway for taking
fish; a dam in a stream to raise the level of the
water or divert its flow; a notch in a barrier across
or bordering a stream to regulate the flow of water;
a device for determining the quantity of water flowing
over it from measurements of the depth of the water
over the crest and known dimensions of the device
(a cipolleti weir is a trapezoidal device of this
sort).
A wide approach to the upstream side of an irriga-
tion weir constructed so as to minimize the effect
of the momentum of the water flowing over the weir.
An underground source of water made accessible by
drilling or digging to the level of the water table.
In a steel plant, a giant cylindrical shower that re-
moves the stubborn particles of raw material
(mostly oxide) remaining behind when the heated air
that reduces ore, coke, and limestone to molten iron
in the blast furnace swirls up the stack. The dust-
laden liquid is pumped to a giant settling basin in
which the particles drop to the bottom in a thick
sludge, permitting the cleared water to overflow the
top of the basin and return to the stream.
GPO 817—435—2
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