Water Pollution

Hydrologic cycle

Water cycle

it describes the continuous movement of water on the surface of the earth

Evaporation

the change of water from a liquid to a gas

Condensation

the change of the physical state of matter from gas phase into liquid phase

Precipitation

water released from clouds in the form of rain, freezing rain, sleet, snow, or hail

Transpiration

The process by which moisture is carried through plants from roots to small pores on the underside of leaves, where it changes to vapor and is released to the atmosphere.

pH

A measure of how acidic/basic water is. The range goes from 0 - 14, with 7 being neutral. pHs of less than 7 indicate acidity, whereas a pH of greater than 7 indicates a base.

Surface runoff

water, from rain, snowmelt, or other sources, that flows over the land surface, and is a major component of the water cycle

Watershed

an area or ridge of land that separates waters flowing to different rivers, basins, or seas.

Groundwater

Water held underground in the soil or in pores and crevices in rock.

Zone of saturation

the area in an aquifer, below the water table, in which relatively all pores and fractures are saturated with water. The phreatic zone defines the lower edge of the vadose zone.

Natural recharge

Precipitation that filters down through soil & rock to replenish aquifer

Water table

The level below which the ground is saturated with water

Aquifers

a body of permeable rock that can contain or transmit groundwater.

Recharge area

Aquifers are replenished with water from the surface through a process called "recharge." This occurs as a part of the hydrologic cycle when water from rainfall percolates into underlying aquifers.

Consumptive use

water removed from available supplies without return to a water resource system.

Non-consumptive use

Does not consume the resource but rather just uses it, such as a hydroelectric dam

Drought

A period of below-average precipitation in a given region, resulting in prolonged shortages in its waters supply, whether atmospheric, surface or ground wate

Aquifer depletion

A term often defined as long-term water-level declines caused by sustained groundwater pumping, is a key issue associated with groundwater use.

Wetlands

Land consisting of marshes or swamps; saturated land.

Estuaries

bodies of water and their surrounding coastal habitats typically found where rivers meet the sea.

Reservoirs

a large natural or artificial lake used as a source of water supply

Dams

A barrier that impounds water or underground streams.

Three Gorges Dam

the world's largest power station in terms of installed capacity

Conservation

the act of preserving, guarding or protecting; wise use.

Desalinization

A process that removes minerals from saline water

Reverse osmosis

A water purification technology that uses a semipermeable membrane to remove larger particles from drinking water. an applied pressure is used to overcome osmotic pressure, a colligative property that is driven by chemical potential, a thermodynamic parameter

Ogallala aquifer

a shallow water table aquifer located beneath the Great Plains in the United States. One of the world's largest aquifers, it underlies an area of approximately 174,000 sq mi in portions of eight states.

Drip irrigation

An irrigation method that saves water and fertilizer by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots of plants, either onto the soil surface or directly onto the root zone, through a network of valves, pipes, tubing, and emitters.

Center pivot irrigation

Also called waterwheel and circle irrigation, is a method of crop irrigation in which equipment rotates around a pivot and crops are watered with sprinklers.

Floodplain

An area of land that is prone to flooding. People realize it is prone to flooding because it has flooded in the past due to a river or stream overflowing its banks.

Erosion

The action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) which remove soil and rock from one location on the Earth's crust, then transport it to another location where it is deposited

Water pollution

the contamination of water bodies (e.g. lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers and groundwater). This form of environmental degradation occurs when pollutants are directly or indirectly discharged into water bodies without adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds.

Coliform bactria

They are a commonly used bacterial indicator of sanitary quality of foods and water.

Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD)

The amount of dissolved oxygen needed by aerobic biological organisms to break down organic material present in a given water sample at certain temperature over a specific time period.

Point source

A localized and stationary pollution source

Nonpoint source

Not a single source but a combination of sources from homes, business and the streets.

Oxygen sag curve

The curve obtained when the concentration of dissolved oxygen in a river into which sewage or some other pollutant has been discharged is plotted against the distance downstream from the sewage outlet.

Eutrophication

the enrichment of an ecosystem with chemical nutrients, typically compounds containing nitrogen, phosphorus, or both.

Cultural eutrophication

A form of water pollution, occurs when excessive fertilizers run into lakes and rivers. This encourages the growth of algae (algal bloom) and other aquatic plants

Oligotrophication

The process of nutrient depletion, or reduction in rates of nutrient cycling, in aquatic ecosystems. It arises as a consequence of acidification, typically the result of pollution and most notably associated with air pollution and acid rain.

Dissolved oxygen

the amount of oxygen that is present in the water. It is measured in milligrams per liter (mg/L), or the number of milligrams of oxygen dissolved in a liter of water.

Indicator species

a trend or fact, that indicates the state or level of something

Sludge

Thick, soft, wet mud or a similar viscous mixture of liquid and solid components, especially the product of an industrial or refining process.

Septic tank

A tank, typically underground, in which sewage is collected and allowed to decompose through bacterial activity before draining by means of a leaching field.

Primary Sewage treatment

involves basic processes to remove suspended solid waste and reduce its biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) - the amount of oxygen microorganisms must consume to breakdown the organic material present in the wastewater.

Secondary Sewage treatment

A treatment process for wastewater (or sewage) to achieve a certain degree of effluent quality by using a sewage treatment plant with physical phase separation to remove settleable solids and a biological process to remove dissolved and suspended organic compounds.

Chlorination

The process of adding chlorine or hypochlorite to water. This method is used to kill certain bacteria and other microbes in tap water as chlorine is highly toxic. In particular, chlorination is used to prevent the spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera, dysentery, typhoid etc.

Chryptosporidium

A genus of apicomplexan protozoans that can cause gastrointestinal illness with diarrhea in humans

Clean Water Act

The primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution

US Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974

the main federal law that ensures the quality of Americans' drinking water. Under SDWA, EPA sets standards for drinking water quality and oversees the states, localities, and water suppliers who implement those standards.

Water Quality Act

Required states to issue water quality standards for interstate waters, and authorized the newly created Federal Water Pollution Control Administration to set standards where states failed to do so.

Dead Zone

A place that is lacking oxygen in the ocean

Water conservation

Refers to the preservation, control and development of water resources, both surface and groundwater, and prevention of pollution

Low flow

The lowest sustaining flow during base runoff conditions of a river

Toilet

We flush our waste down with this machine, it uses a lot of water but now there are low water toilets.

Aquatic Life Zones

Zones under the water, whether it be sea, river or lakes, where aquatic life is present.

Salinity

The saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water

Nekton

Aquatic animals that are able to swim and move independently of water currents.

Benthos

The flora and fauna found on the bottom, or in the bottom sediments, of a sea, lake, or other body of water

Phytoplankton

the autotrophic components of the plankton community and a key factor of oceans, seas and freshwater basin ecosystems

Zooplankton

organisms drifting in oceans, seas, and bodies of fresh water.

Euphotic Zone

The layer closer to the surface that receives enough light for photosynthesis to occur

Coastal Zone

continually changing because of the dynamic interaction between the oceans and the land.

Continental Shelf

An underwater landmass which extends from a continent, resulting in an area of relatively shallow water known as a shelf sea. Much of the shelves were exposed during glacial periods and interglacial periods.

Estuary

A partly enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea

Coastal Wetlands

salt marshes, bottomland hardwood swamps, fresh marshes, mangrove swamps, and shrubby depressions known in the southeast United States as "pocosins."

Intertidal zone

Also known as the foreshore and seashore and sometimes referred to as the littoral zone, is the area that is above water at low tide and under water at high tide.

Coral reefs

diverse underwater ecosystems held together by calcium carbonate structures secreted by corals.Coral reefs are built by colonies of tiny animals found in marine waters that contain few nutrients. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, which in turn consist of polyps that cluster in groups.

Bathyal zone

relating to the biogeographic region of the ocean bottom between the sub-littoral and abyssal zones: from depths of approximately 660 to 13,000 feet

Abyssal zone

The abyssopelagic layer or pelagic zone that contains the very deep benthic communities near the bottom of oceans.

Littoral zone

The near shore area where sunlight penetrates all the way to the sediment and allows aquatic plants (macrophytes) to grow.

Limnetic zone

The well-lit, open surface waters in a lake, away from the shore. The vegetation of the littoral zone surrounds this expanse of open water and it is above the profundal zone.

Benthic zone

The ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean or a lake, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers

Thermal stratification

In the water column of a lake, a condition that may develop during the summer in which the thermocline and pycnocline change over a short vertical distance, at the metalimnion. This prevents mixing between the waters of the epilimnion and hypolimnion.