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EPA - Environmental Terms Glossary Category: Earth and Environment Date & country: 13/09/2007, USA Words: 1829

Selective Pesticide
A chemical designed to affect only certain types of pests, leaving other plants and animals unharmed.

Semi-Confined Aquifer
An aquifer partially confined by soil layers of low permeability through which recharge and discharge can still occur.

Semivolatile Organic Compounds
Organic compounds that volatilize slowly at standard temperature (20 degrees C and 1 atm pressure).

Senescence
The aging process. Sometimes used to describe lakes or other bodies of water in advanced stages of eutrophication. Also used to describe plants and animals.

Septic System
An on-site system designed to treat and dispose of domestic sewage. A typical septic system consists of tank that receives waste from a residence or business and a system of tile lines or a pit for disposal of the liquid effluent (sludge) that remains after decomposition of the solids by bacteria in the tank and must be pumped out periodically.

Septic Tank
An underground storage tank for wastes from homes not connected to a sewer line. Waste goes directly from the home to the tank. (See septic system.)

Service Connector
The pipe that carries tap water from a public water main to a building.

Service Line Sample
A one-liter sample of water that has been standing for at least 6 hours in a service pipeline and is collected according to federal regulations.

Service Pipe
The pipeline extending from the water main to the building served or to the consumer's system.

Set-Back
Setting a thermometer to a lower temperature when the building is unoccupied to reduce consumption of heating energy. Also refers to setting the thermometer to a higher temperature during unoccupied periods in the cooling season.

Settleable Solids
Material heavy enough to sink to the bottom of a wastewater treatment tank.

Settling Chamber
A series of screens placed in the way of flue gases to slow the stream of air, thus helping gravity to pull particles into a collection device.

Settling Tank
A holding area for wastewater, where heavier particles sink to the bottom for removal and disposal.

Sewage
The waste and wastewater produced by residential and commercial sources and discharged into sewers.

Sewage Lagoon
(See lagoon.)

Sewage Sludge
Sludge produced at a Publicly Owned Treatment Works, the disposal of which is regulated under the Clean Water Act.

Sewer
A channel or conduit that carries wastewater and storm-water runoff from the source to a treatment plant or receiving stream. 'Sanitary' sewers carry household, industrial, and commercial waste. 'Storm' sewers carry runoff from rain or snow. 'Combined' sewers handle both.

Sewerage
The entire system of sewage collection, treatment, and disposal.

Shading Coefficient
The amount of the sun's heat transmitted through a given window compared with that of a standard 1/8- inch-thick single pane of glass under the same conditions.

Sharps
Hypodermic needles, syringes (with or without the attached needle), Pasteur pipettes, scalpel blades, blood vials, needles with attached tubing, and culture dishes used in animal or human patient care or treatment, or in medical, research or industrial laboratories. Also included are other types of broken or unbroken glassware that were in contact with infectious agents, such as used slides and cover slips, and unused hypodermic and suture needles, syringes, and scalpel blades.

Shock Load
The arrival at a water treatment plant of raw water containing unusual amounts of algae, colloidal matter. color, suspended solids, turbidity, or other pollutants.

Short-Circuiting
When some of the water in tanks or basins flows faster than the rest; may result in shorter contact, reaction, or settling times than calculated or presumed.

Sick Building Syndrome
Building whose occupants experience acute health and/or comfort effects that appear to be linked to time spent therein, but where no specific illness or cause can be identified. Complaints may be localized in a particular room or zone, or may spread throughout the building. (See building-related illness.)

Signal
The volume or product-level change produced by a leak in a tank.

Signal Words
The words used on a pesticide label--Danger, Warning, Caution--to indicate level of toxicity.

Significant Deterioration
Pollution resulting from a new source in previously 'clean' areas. (See prevention of significant deterioration.)

Significant Municipal Facilities
Those publicly owned sewage treatment plants that discharge a million gallons per day or more and are therefore considered by states to have the potential to substantially affect the quality of receiving waters.

Significant Non-Compliance
(See significant violations.)

Significant Violations
Violations by point source dischargers of sufficient magnitude or duration to be a regulatory priority.

Silt
Sedimentary materials composed of fine or intermediate-sized mineral particles.

Silviculture
Management of forest land for timber.

Single-Breath Canister
Small one-liter canister designed to capture a single breath. Used in air pollutant ingestion research.

Sink
Place in the environment where a compound or material collects.

Sinking
Controlling oil spills by using an agent to trap the oil and sink it to the bottom of the body of water where the agent and the oil are biodegraded.

SIP Call
EPA action requiring a state to resubmit all or part of its State Implementation Plan to demonstrate attainment of the require national ambient air quality standards within the statutory deadline. A SIP Revision is a revision of a SIP altered at the request of EPA or on a state's initiative. (See State Implementation Plan.)

Site
An area or place within the jurisdiction of the EPA and/or a state.

Site Assessment Program
A means of evaluating hazardous waste sites through preliminary assessments and site inspections to develop a Hazard Ranking System score.

Site Inspection
The collection of information from a Superfund site to determine the extent and severity of hazards posed by the site. It follows and is more extensive than a preliminary assessment. The purpose is to gather information necessary to score the site, using the Hazard Ranking System, and to determine if it presents an immediate threat requiring prompt removal.

Site Safety Plan
A crucial element in all removal actions, it includes information on equipment being used, precautions to be taken, and steps to take in the event of an on-site emergency.

Siting
The process of choosing a location for a facility.

Skimming
Using a machine to remove oil or scum from the surface of the water.

Slow Sand Filtration
Passage of raw water through a bed of sand at low velocity, resulting in substantial removal of chemical and biological contaminants.

Sludge
A semi-solid residue from any of a number of air or water treatment processes; can be a hazardous waste.

Sludge Digester
Tank in which complex organic substances like sewage sludges are biologically dredged. During these reactions, energy is released and much of the sewage is converted to methane, carbon dioxide, and water.

Slurry
A watery mixture of insoluble matter resulting from some pollution control techniques.

Smelter
A facility that melts or fuses ore, often with an accompanying chemical change, to separate its metal content. Emissions cause pollution. 'Smelting' is the process involved.

Smog
Air pollution typically associated with oxidants. (See photochemical smog.)

Smoke
Particles suspended in air after incomplete combustion.

Soft Detergents
Cleaning agents that break down in nature.

Soft Water
Any water that does not contain a significant amount of dissolved minerals such as salts of calcium or magnesium.

Soil Adsorption Field
A sub-surface area containing a trench or bed with clean stones and a system of piping through which treated sewage may seep into the surrounding soil for further treatment and disposal.

Soil Conditioner
An organic material like humus or compost that helps soil absorb water, build a bacterial community, and take up mineral nutrients.

Soil Erodibility
An indicator of a soil's susceptibility to raindrop impact, runoff, and other erosive processes.

Soil Gas
Gaseous elements and compounds in the small spaces between particles of the earth and soil. Such gases can be moved or driven out under pressure.

Soil Moisture
The water contained in the pore space of the unsaturated zone.

Soil Sterilant
A chemical that temporarily or permanently prevents the growth of all plants and animals,

Solder
Metallic compound used to seal joints between pipes. Until recently, most solder contained 50 percent lead. Use of solder containing more than 0.2 percent lead in pipes carrying drinking water is now prohibited.

Sole-Source Aquifer
An aquifer that supplies 50-percent or more of the drinking water of an area.

Solid Waste
Non-liquid, non-soluble materials ranging from municipal garbage to industrial wastes that contain complex and sometimes hazardous substances. Solid wastes also include sewage sludge, agricultural refuse, demolition wastes, and mining residues. Technically, solid waste also refers to liquids and gases in containers.

Solid Waste Disposal
The final placement of refuse that is not salvaged or recycled.

Solid Waste Management
Supervised handling of waste materials from their source through recovery processes to disposal.

Solidification and Stabilization
Removal of wastewater from a waste or changing it chemically to make it less permeable and susceptible to transport by water.

Solubility
The amount of mass of a compound that will dissolve in a unit volume of solution. Aqueous Solubility is the maximum concentration of a chemical that will dissolve in pure water at a reference temperature.

Soot
Carbon dust formed by incomplete combustion.

Sorption
The action of soaking up or attracting substances; process used in many pollution control systems.

Source Area
The location of liquid hydrocarbons or the zone of highest soil or groundwater concentrations, or both, of the chemical of concern.

Source Reduction
Reducing the amount of materials entering the waste stream from a specific source by redesigning products or patterns of production or consumption (e.g., using returnable beverage containers). Synonymous with waste reduction.

Source Separation
Segregating various wastes at the point of generation (e.g., separation of paper, metal and glass from other wastes to make recycling simpler and more efficient).

Source-Water Protection Area
The area delineated by a state for a Public Water Supply or including numerous such suppliers, whether the source is ground water or surface water or both.

Sparge or Sparging
Injection of air below the water table to strip dissolved volatile organic compounds and/or oxygenate ground water to facilitate aerobic biodegradation of organic compounds.

Special Local-Needs Registration
Registration of a pesticide product by a state agency for a specific use that is not federally registered. However, the active ingredient must be federally registered for other uses. The special use is specific to that state and is often minor, thus may not warrant the additional cost of a full federal registration process. SLN registration cannot be issued for new active ingredients, food-use active ingredients without tolerances, or for a canceled registration. The products cannot be shipped a…

Special Review
Formerly known as Rebuttable Presumption Against Registration (RPAR), this is the regulatory process through which existing pesticides suspected of posing unreasonable risks to human health, non-target organisms, or the environment are referred for review by EPA. Such review requires an intensive risk/benefit analysis with opportunity for public comment. If risk is found to outweigh social and economic benefits, regulatory actions can be initiated, ranging from label revisions and use-restrictio…

Special Waste
Items such as household hazardous waste, bulky wastes (refrigerators, pieces of furniture, etc.) tires, and used oil.

Species
1. A reproductively isolated aggregate of interbreeding organisms having common attributes and usually designated by a common name.2. An organism belonging to belonging to such a category.

Specific Conductance
Rapid method of estimating the dissolved solid content of a water supply by testing its capacity to carry an electrical current.

Specific Yield
The amount of water a unit volume of saturated permeable rock will yield when drained by gravity.

Spoil
Dirt or rock removed from its original location--destroying the composition of the soil in the process--as in strip-mining, dredging, or construction.

Sprawl
Unplanned development of open land.

Spray Tower Scrubber
A device that sprays alkaline water into a chamber where acid gases are present to aid in neutralizing the gas.

Spring
Ground water seeping out of the earth where the water table intersects the ground surface.

Spring Melt-Thaw
The process whereby warm temperatures melt winter snow and ice. Because various forms of acid deposition may have been stored in the frozen water, the melt can result in abnormally large amounts of acidity entering streams and rivers, sometimes causing fish kills.

Stabilization
Conversion of the active organic matter in sludge into inert, harmless material.

Stabilization Ponds
(See lagoon.)

Stable Air
A motionless mass of air that holds, instead of dispersing, pollutants.

Stack
A chimney, smokestack, or vertical pipe that discharges used air.

Stack Effect
Air, as in a chimney, that moves upward because it is warmer than the ambient atmosphere.

Stack Effect
Flow of air resulting from warm air rising, creating a positive pressure area at the top of a building and negative pressure area at the bottom. This effect can overpower the mechanical system and disrupt building ventilation and air circulation.

Stack Gas
(See flue gas.)

Stage II Controls
Systems placed on service station gasoline pumps to control and capture gasoline vapors during refuelling.

Stagnation
Lack of motion in a mass of air or water that holds pollutants in place.

Stakeholder
Any organization, governmental entity, or individual that has a stake in or may be impacted by a given approach to environmental regulation, pollution prevention, energy conservation, etc.

Standard Sample
The part of finished drinking water that is examined for the presence of coliform bacteria.

Standards
Norms that impose limits on the amount of pollutants or emissions produced. EPA establishes minimum standards, but states are allowed to be stricter.

Start of a Response Action
The point in time when there is a guarantee or set-aside of funding by EPA, other federal agencies, states or Principal Responsible Parties in order to begin response actions at a Superfund site.

State Implementation Plans (SIP)
EPA approved state plans for the establishment, regulation, and enforcement of air pollution standards.

State Management Plan
Under FIFRA, a state management plan required by EPA to allow states, tribes, and U.S. territories the flexibility to design and implement ways to protect ground water from the use of certain pesticides.

Static Water Depth
The vertical distance from the centerline of the pump discharge down to the surface level of the free pool while no water is being drawn from the pool or water table.

Static Water Level
1. Elevation or level of the water table in a well when the pump is not operating. 2. The level or elevation to which water would rise in a tube connected to an artesian aquifer or basin in a conduit under pressure.

Stationary Source
A fixed-site producer of pollution, mainly power plants and other facilities using industrial combustion processes. (See point source.)

Sterilization
The removal or destruction of all microorganisms, including pathogenic and other bacteria, vegetative forms, and spores.