Complete environmental solutions that maximize YOUR competitive position

- In ecological risk assessment, a general term referring to a species, a group of species, an ecosystem function or characteristic, or a specific habitat or biome.

- Maintenance of ecosystem components and functions for future generations.

- Exposure of a non-human organism to a stressor.

- The effect that a man-caused or natural activity has on living organisms and their non-living (abiotic) environment.

- A characteristic of an ecosystem that is related to, or derived from, a measure of biotic or abiotic variable, that can provide quantitative information on ecological structure and function. An indicator can contribute to a measure of integrity and sustainability.

- A living system exhibits integrity if, when subjected to disturbance, it sustains and organizes self-correcting ability to recover toward a biomass end-state that is normal for that system. End-states other than the pristine or naturally whole may be accepted as normal and good.

- The application of a formal framework, analytical process, or model to estimate the effects of human actions(s) on a natural resource and to interpret the significance of those effects in light of the uncertainties identified in each component of the assessment process. Such analysis includes initial hazard identification, exposure and dose-response assessments, and risk characterization.

- The relationship of living things to one another and their environment, or the study of such relationships.

- Chemicals used to control pests and to defoliate cash crops such as cotton.

- The "bio-bubble" that contains life on earth, in surface waters, and in the air.

- The interacting system of a biological community and its non-living environmental surroundings.

- Attributes related to the instantaneous physical state of an ecosystem; examples include species population density, species richness or evenness, and standing crop biomass.

- A habitat created by the juxtaposition of distinctly different habitats; an edge habitat; or an ecological zone or boundary where two or more ecosystems meet.

- Wastewater--treated or untreated--that flows out of a treatment plant, sewer, or industrial outfall. Generally refers to wastes discharged into surface waters.

- Technical documents which set effluent limitations for given industries and pollutants.

- Restrictions established by a state or EPA on quantities, rates, and concentrations in wastewater discharges.

- A device used to disperse a chemical solution into water being treated.

- A process that uses electrical current applied to permeable membranes to remove minerals from water. Often used to desalinize salty or brackish water.

- Ways to measure subsurface conductivity via low-frequency electromagnetic induction.

- A device that removes particles from a gas stream (smoke) after combustion occurs. The ESP imparts an electrical charge to the particles, causing them to adhere to metal plates inside the precipitator. Rapping on the plates causes the particles to fall into a hopper for disposal.

- The construction costs for wastewater treatment works upon which EPA grants are based.

- An annual report by facilities having one or more extremely hazardous substances or hazardous chemicals above certain weight limits.

- A situation created by an accidental release or spill of hazardous chemicals that poses a threat to the safety of workers, residents, the environment, or property.

- 1. Steps take to remove contaminated materials that pose imminent threats to local residents (e.g. removal of leaking drums or the excavation of explosive waste.) 2. The state record of such removals.

- Concentrations of chemicals, published by various groups, defining acceptable levels for short-term exposures in emergencies.

- Suspension of a pesticide product registration due to an imminent hazard. The action immediately halts distribution, sale, and sometimes actual use of the pesticide involved.

- Pollution discharged into the atmosphere from smokestacks, other vents, and surface areas of commercial or industrial facilities; from residential chimneys; and from motor vehicle, locomotive, or aircraft exhausts.

- A limit designed to prevent projected growth in emissions from existing and future stationary sources from eroding any mandated reductions. Generally, such provisions require that any emission growth from facilities under the restrictions be offset by equivalent reductions at other facilities under the same cap.

- The relationship between the amount of pollution produced and the amount of raw material processed. For example, an emission factor for a blast furnace making iron would be the number of pounds of particulates per ton of raw materials.

- A listing, by source, of the amount of air pollutants discharged into the atmosphere of a community; used to establish emission standards.

- The maximum amount of air polluting discharge legally allowed from a single source, mobile or stationary.

- The creation of surplus emission reductions at certain stacks, vents or similar emissions sources and the use of this surplus to meet or redefine pollution requirements applicable to other emissions sources. This allows one source to increase emissions when another source reduces them, maintaining an overall constant emission level. Facilities that reduce emissions substantially may "bank" their "credits" or sell them to other facilities or industries.

- A chemical that aids in suspending one liquid in another. Usually an organic chemical in an aqueous solution.

- The treatment of asbestos-containing material with a liquid that covers the surface with a protective coating or embeds fibers in an adhesive matrix to prevent their release into the air.

- Putting an airtight, impermeable, permanent barrier around asbestos-containing materials to prevent the release of asbestos fibers into the air.

- Consumer of products for the purpose of recycling. Excludes products for re-use or combustion for energy recovery.

- Technologies such as scrubbers on smokestacks and catalytic convertors on automobile tailpipes that reduce emissions of pollutants after they have formed.

- A pesticide formulation for field or other end use. The label has instructions for use or application to control pests or regulate plant growth. The term excludes products used to formulate other pesticide products.

- Animals, birds, fish, plants, or other living organisms threatened with extinction by anthropogenic (man-caused) or other natural changes in their environment.

- A study to determine the nature and extent of contamination at a site and the risks posed to public health or the environment. EPA or the state conducts the study when a legal action is to be taken to direct potentially responsible parties to clean up a site or pay for it. An endangerment assessment supplements a remedial investigation.

- A pesticide toxic to freshwater and marine aquatic life that produces adverse health effects in domestic water supplies.

- A control system capable of monitoring environmental and system loads operations accordingly in order to conserve energy while maintaining comfort.

- Obtaining energy from waste through a variety of processes (e.g. combustion).

- Method of managing environmental and health risks by placing a barrier between the contamination and the rest of the site, thus limiting exposure pathways.

- An improved automobile inspection and maintenance program--aimed at reducing automobile emissions---that contains, at a minimum, more vehicle types and model years, tighter inspection, and better management practices. It may also include annual computerized or centralized inspections, under-the-hood inspection--for signs of tampering with pollution control equipment--and increased repair waiver cost.

- The addition of nutrients (e.g. nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon compounds) from sewage effluent or agricultural runoff to surface water, greatly increases the growth potential for algae and other aquatic plants.

- To trap bubbles in water either mechanically through turbulence or chemically through a reaction.

- The sum of all external conditions affecting the life, development and survival of an organism.

- An environmental analysis prepared pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act to determine whether a federal action would significantly affect the environment and thus require a more detailed environmental impact statement.

- An independent assessment of the current status of a party's compliance with applicable environmental requirements or of a party's environmental compliance policies, practices, and controls.

- The potential for adverse effects on living organisms associated with pollution of the environment by effluents, emissions, wastes, or accidental chemical releases; energy use; or the depletion of natural resources.

- Equal protection from environmental hazards for individuals, groups, or communities regardless of race, ethnicity, or economic status. This applies to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies, and implies that no population of people should be forced to shoulder a disproportionate share of negative environmental impacts of pollution or environmental hazard due to a lack of political or economic strength levels.

- Human exposure to pollutants originating from facility emissions. Threshold levels are not necessarily surpassed, but low-level chronic pollutant exposure is one of the most common forms of environmental exposure.

- The destiny of a chemical or biological pollutant after release into the environment.

- Data that characterize a pesticide's fate in the ecosystem, considering factors that foster its degradation (light, water, microbes), pathways and resultant products.

- A document required of federal agencies by the National Environmental Policy Act for major projects or legislative proposals significantly affecting the environment. A tool for decision making, it describes the positive and negative effects of the undertaking and cites alternative actions.

- A measurement, statistic or value that provides a proximate gauge or evidence of the effects of environmental management programs or of the state or condition of the environment.

- The fair treatment of people of all races, cultures, incomes, and educational levels with respect to the development and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.

- A charge, security, or encumbrance on a property's title to secure payment of cost or debt arising from response actions, cleanup, or other remediation of hazardous substances or petroleum products.

- A major environmental category that surrounds or contacts humans, animals, plants, and other organisms (e.g. surface water, ground water, soil or air) and through which chemicals or pollutants move.

- The process of determining whether contamination is present on a parcel of real property.

- Long-term maintenance of ecosystem components and functions for future generations.

- Mixture of smoke from the burning end of a cigarette, pipe, or cigar and smoke exhaled by the smoker.

- Study of the distribution of disease, or other health-related states and events in human populations, as related to age, sex, occupation, ethnicity, and economic status in order to identify and alleviate health problems and promote better health.

- Upper waters of a thermally stratified lake subject to wind action.

- An air pollution incident in a given area caused by a concentration of atmospheric pollutants under meteorological conditions that may result in a significant increase in illnesses or deaths. May also describe water pollution events or hazardous material spills.

- In relation to radiation, the state at which the radioactivity of consecutive elements within a radioactive series is neither increasing nor decreasing.

- Any method of sampling and analyzing for air pollution which has been demonstrated to the EPA Administrator's satisfaction to be, under specific conditions, an acceptable alternative to normally used reference methods.

- The wearing away of land surface by wind or water, intensified by land-clearing practices related to farming, residential or industrial development, road building, or logging.

- Technologies for which cost and performance data are readily available.

- The estimated pesticide concentration in an ecosystem.

- Region of interaction between rivers and near-shore ocean waters, where tidal action and river flow mix fresh and salt water. Such areas include bays, mouths of rivers, salt marshes, and lagoons. These brackish water ecosystems shelter and feed marine life, birds, and wildlife.

- An alternative automotive fuel derived from grain and corn; usually blended with gasoline to form gasohol.

- A chemical used as an agricultural fumigant and in certain industrial processes. Extremely toxic and found to be a carcinogen in laboratory animals, EDB has been banned for most agricultural uses in the United States.

- Shallow, murky bodies of water with concentrations of plant nutrients causing excessive production of algae.

- The slow aging process during which a lake, estuary, or bay evolves into a bog or marsh and eventually disappears. During the later stages of eutrophication the water body is choked by abundant plant life due to higher levels of nutritive compounds such as nitrogen and phosphorus. Human activities can accelerate the process.

- Areas where sewage sludge is dumped and dried.

- The loss of water from the soil both by evaporation and by transpiration from the plants growing in the soil.

- Violation of the pollutant levels permitted by environmental protection standards.

- Specific organic compounds not subject to requirements of regulation because they are deemed by EPA to be of negligible photochemical reactivity.

- Underground bodies of water defined in the Underground Injection Control program as aquifers that are potential sources of drinking water though not being used as such, and thus exempted from regulations barring underground injection activities.

- A state (with primacy) may exempt a public water system from a requirement involving a Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL), treatment technique, or both, if the system cannot comply due to compelling economic or other factors, or because the system was in operation before the requirement or MCL was instituted; and the exemption will not create a public health risk.

- A species that is not indigenous to a region.

- A permit granted by EPA that allows a producer to conduct tests of a new pesticide, product and/or use outside the laboratory. The testing is usually done on ten or more acres of land or water surface.

- The amounts of vapor in the air that form explosive mixtures; limits are expressed as lower and upper limits and give the range of vapor concentrations in air that will explode if an ignition source is present.

- In solid waste program, municipal solid waste and recyclables transported outside the state or locality where they originated.

- The amount of radiation or pollutant present in a given environment that represents a potential health threat to living organisms.

- Identifying the pathways by which toxicants may reach individuals, estimating how much of a chemical an individual is likely to be exposed to, and estimating the number likely to be exposed.

- The concentration of a chemical or other pollutant representing a health threat in a given environment.

- A characteristic of the environment measured to provide evidence of the occurrence or magnitude of a response indicator's exposure to a chemical or biological stress.

- The amount (concentration) of a chemical at the absorptive surfaces of an organism.

- The path from sources of pollutants via, soil, water, or food to man and other species or settings.

- The way a chemical or pollutant enters an organism after contact; i.e. by ingestion, inhalation, or dermal absorption.

- The relationship between exposure level and the incidence of adverse effects.

- Determining toxicity by a procedure which simulates leaching; if a certain concentration of a toxic substance can be leached from a waste, that waste is considered hazardous, i.e."EP Toxic."

- A discharge well used to remove groundwater or air.

- Any of 406 chemicals identified as toxic. The list is subject to periodic revision.

- A concept that, to qualify for “offset credits” or “carbon credits,” a project that reduces or avoids GHG emissions must demonstrate that the reductions would not have otherwise occurred in a “business as usual” setting. In general, avoided or reduced emissions otherwise required by law are not “additional.” Further, the requisite demonstration generally includes a financial test to demonstrate that the value of offset credits is an important factor in the investment decision.

- An offset project to establish forest on land that has not been forested for a long period of time (generally 50 years) or on non-forested land.

- A legal mechanism to place an aggregate cap on the emission of defined pollutants (such as GHGs) and to require emitters to acquire in the market an “allowance” or an “offset” for each unit of pollutant emitted. The media sometimes refers to allowances and offsets as “permits” to pollute. In the case of GHGs, most proposals involve a cap that declines over time between now and 2050.

- The capture of GHGs and injection of them into geologic formations deep underground.

- Created under Kyoto Protocol, the CDM is a system for recognizing offset credits, called CERs, generated by “clean” projects undertaken in the developing world that reduce or avoid GHGs. CERs are negotiable instruments that can be used for compliance in a cap and trade market. Thousands of CDM projects are in the pipeline, representing billions in development and in CER value.

- A negotiable offset credit generated by CDM projects and issued by the CDM Executive Board under the Kyoto Protocol, generally involving “clean” projects to reduce or avoid GHGs in the developing world.

- GHGs have different effects in terms of creating a greenhouse effect. One ton of methane, for example, has 25 times greater “global warming potential” than one ton carbon dioxide, according to the IPCC. To normalize these differences, units of the various GHGs are converted to CO2e for purposes of determining, for example, the number of units of allowances or offsets an emitter must acquire in a cap and trade setting.

- Site of the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference, the meeting intended to determine what international climate system will come after the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012.

- The carbon emissions trading scheme developed in the EU to implement the Kyoto Protocol.

- Naturally occurring and man-made gases that have heat trapping properties when emitted to the atmosphere. EPA defines GHGs to include CO2, CH4, N2O, HFCs, PFCs, SF6, and other specified fluorinated compounds.

- The relative magnitude of heat-trapping properties that different GHGs exhibit. A higher GWP results in a higher CO2e value per ton of the relevant gas. IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). International body formed in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme to assess climate change. The IPCC publishes reports on topics relevant to implementing the UNFCCC. The IPCC does not do independent research but reviews and assesses scientific, technical and socio-economic information provided by third parties.

- The existing international scheme to limit GHGs. Adopted pursuant to the UNFCCC, it creates a hybrid of a cap and trade system, with legally binding caps on developed nations that participate (“Annex I” countries”), and incentives for “green” investments in developing countries (“non-Annex I” countries) that generate negotiable offset credits.

- A method of evaluating the cumulative environmental impact of a project or product, from raw material extraction and procurement, through production and use, to final disposition.

- In a cap and trade market, offsets are a type of credit that can be utilized for compliance (subject to whatever limits are in the applicable legislation) in lieu of a government-issued allowance. Offsets generally result from approved projects that reduce or avoid GHG emissions, such as methane destruction, or energy switching.

- Legal requirements that require electricity retailers to procure a certain percentage of their base load from qualified renewable energy sources (or acquire negotiable credits representing such renewable energy production).

- A requirement under the Clean Air Act that a certain percentage of liquid fuels for transportation come from qualified renewable sources.

- United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: The 1988 agreement that generally governs the international response to climate change but which requires the development and member ratification of protocols in order for binding emissions targets to apply to member nations.