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Glossary: C
Cable Tool Rig:
A heavy drilling rig with a derrick and
power unit not only for drilling but for pulling tools and bailing
wells. Cable tool drills operate by repeatedly lifting and dropping a
heavy string of drilling tools into the borehole. Early machines
include Wolfe, Star, Cyclone, Bolles, Bucyrus-Erie, Keystone drill, Yo
Yo rig, Chicago Pneumatic, and Ohio Cleaner.
Cadmium (Cd):
A heavy metal that accumulates in the environment.
Cap:
A layer of clay, or other impermeable material installed over the top of a
closed landfill to prevent entry of rainwater and minimize leachate.
Capacity Assurance Plan:
A statewide plan which supports a state's ability to manage the hazardous waste
generated within its boundaries over a twenty year period.
Capillary Action:
Movement of water through very small spaces due to molecular forces called
capillary forces.
Capillary Fringe:
The porous material just above the water table which may hold water by
capillarity (a property of surface tension that draws water upwards) in the
smaller void spaces.
Capillary Fringe:
The zone above he water table within which the porous medium is saturated by
water under less than atmospheric pressure.
Capture Efficiency:
The fraction of organic vapors generated by a process that are directed to an
abatement or recovery device.
Carbon Absorber:
An add-on control device that uses activated carbon to absorb volatile organic
compounds from a gas stream. (The VOCs are later recovered from the carbon.)
Carbon Adsorption:
A treatment system that removes contaminants from groundwater or surface water
by forcing it through tanks containing activated carbon treated to attract the
contaminants.
Carbon Monoxide (CO):
A colorless, odorless, poisonous gas produced by incomplete fossil fuel
combustion.
Carbon Tetrachloride (CC14):
Compound consisting of one carbon atom ad four chlorine atoms, once widely used
as a industrial raw material, as a solvent, and in the production of CFCs. Use
as a solvent ended when it was discovered to be carcinogenic.
Carboxyhemoglobin:
Hemoglobin in which the iron is bound to carbon monoxide (CO) instead of oxygen.
Carcinogen:
Any substance that can cause or aggravate cancer.
Carrier:
1.The inert liquid or solid material in a pesticide product that serves as a
delivery vehicle for the active ingredient. Carriers do not have toxic
properties of their own. 2. Any material or system that can facilitate the
movement of a pollutant into the body or cells.
Carrying Capacity:
1. In recreation management, the amount of use a recreation area can sustain
without loss of quality. 2. In wildlife management, the maximum number of
animals an area can support during a given period.
CAS Registration Number:
A number assigned by the Chemical Abstract Service to identify a chemical.
Case Study:
A brief fact sheet providing risk, cost, and performance information on
alternative methods and other pollution prevention ideas, compliance
initiatives, voluntary efforts, etc.
Cask:
A thick-walled container (usually lead) used to transport radioactive material.
Also called a coffin.
Catalyst:
A substance that changes the speed or yield of a chemical reaction without being
consumed or chemically changed by the chemical reaction.
Catalytic Converter:
An air pollution abatement device that removes pollutants from motor vehicle
exhaust, either by oxidizing them into carbon dioxide and water or reducing them
to nitrogen.
Catalytic Incinerator:
A control device that oxidizes volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by using a
catalyst to promote the combustion process. Catalytic incinerators require lower
temperatures than conventional thermal incinerators, thus saving fuel and other
costs.
Categorical Exclusion:
A class of actions which Periodic or continuous surveillance or testing to
determine the level of compliance with statutory requirements and/or pollutant
levels in various media or in humans, plants, and animals; either individually
or cumulatively would not have a significant effect on the human environment and
therefore would not require preparation of an environmental assessment or
environmental impact statement under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
Categorical Pretreatment Standard:
A technology-based effluent limitation for an industrial facility discharging
into a municipal sewer system. Analogous in stringency to Best Availability
Technology (BAT) for direct dischargers.
Cathodic Protection:
A technique to prevent corrosion of a metal surface by making it the cathode of
an electrochemical cell.
Cavitation:
The formation and collapse of gas pockets or bubbles on the blade of an impeller
or the gate of a valve; collapse of these pockets or bubbles drives water with
such force that it can cause pitting of the gate or valve surface.
Cells:
1. In solid waste disposal, holes where waste is dumped, compacted, and covered
with layers of dirt on a daily basis. 2. The smallest structural part of living
matter capable of functioning as an independent unit.
Cementitious:
Densely packed and non-fibrous friable materials.
Centrifugal Collector:
A mechanical system using centrifugal force to remove aerosols from a gas stream
or to remove water from sludge.
CERCLIS:
The federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability
Information System is a database that includes all sites which have been
nominated for investigation by the Superfund program.
Channelization:
Straightening and deepening streams so water will move faster, a marsh-drainage
tactic that can interfere with waste assimilation capacity, disturb fish and
wildlife habitats, and aggravate flooding.
Characteristic:
Any one of the four categories used in defining hazardous waste: ignitability,
corrosivity, reactivity, and toxicity.
Characterization of Ecological Effects:
Part of ecological risk assessment that evaluates ability of a stressor to cause
adverse effects under given circumstances.
Characterization of Exposure:
Portion of an ecological risk assessment that evaluates interaction of a
stressor with one or more ecological entities.
Check-Valve Tubing Pump:
Water sampling tool also referred to as a water pump.
Chemical Case:
For purposes of review and regulation, the grouping of chemically similar
pesticide active ingredients (e.g. salts and esters of the same chemical) into
chemical cases.
Chemical Compound:
A distinct and pure substance formed by the union or two or more elements in
definite proportion by weight.
Chemical Element:
A fundamental substance comprising one kind of atom; the simplest form of
matter.
Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD):
A measure of the oxygen required to oxidize all compounds, both organic and
inorganic, in water.
Chemical Stressors:
Chemicals released to the environment through industrial waste, auto emissions,
pesticides, and other human activity that can cause illnesses and even death in
plants and animals.
Chemical Treatment:
Any one of a variety of technologies that use chemicals or a variety of chemical
processes to treat waste.
Chemnet:
Mutual aid network of chemical shippers and contractors that assigns a
contracted emergency response company to provide technical support if a
representative of the firm whose chemicals are involved in an incident is not
readily available.
Chemtrec:
The industry-sponsored Chemical Transportation Emergency Center; provides
information and/or emergency assistance to emergency responders.
Child Resistant Packaging (CRP):
Packaging that protects children or adults from injury or illness resulting from
accidental contact with or ingestion of residential pesticides that meet or
exceed specific toxicity levels. Required by FIFRA regulations. Term is also
used for protective packaging of medicines.
Chiller:
A device that generates a cold liquid that is circulated through an air-handling
unit's cooling coil to cool the air supplied to the building.
Chisel Plowing:
Preparing croplands by using a special implement that avoids complete inversion
of the soil as in conventional plowing. Chisel plowing can leave a protective
cover or crops residues on the soil surface to help prevent erosion and improve
filtration.
Chlorinated Hydrocarbons:
1. Chemicals containing only chlorine, carbon, and hydrogen. These include a
class of persistent, broad-spectrum insecticides that linger in the environment
and accumulate in the food chain. Among them are DDT, aldrin, dieldrin,
heptachlor, chlordane, lindane, endrin, Mirex, hexachloride, and toxaphene.
Other examples include TCE, used as an industrial solvent. 2. Any chlorinated
organic compounds including chlorinated solvents such as dichloromethane,
trichloromethylene, chloroform.
Chlorinated Solvent:
An organic solvent containing chlorine atoms(e.g. methylene chloride and
1,1,1-trichloromethane). Uses of chlorinated solvents are include aerosol spray
containers, in highway paint, and dry cleaning fluids.
Chlorination:
The application of chlorine to drinking water, sewage, or industrial waste to
disinfect or to oxidize undesirable compounds.
Chlorinator:
A device that adds chlorine, in gas or liquid form, to water or sewage to kill
infectious bacteria.
Chlorine-Contact Chamber:
That part of a water treatment plant where effluent is disinfected by chlorine.
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs):
A family of inert, nontoxic, and easily liquefied chemicals used in
refrigeration, air conditioning, packaging, insulation, or as solvents and
aerosol propellants. Because CFCs are not destroyed in the lower atmosphere they
drift into the upper atmosphere where their chlorine components destroy ozone.
(See: fluorocarbons.)
Chlorophenoxy:
A class of herbicides that may be found in domestic water supplies and cause
adverse health effects.
Chlorosis:
Discoloration of normally green plant parts caused by disease, lack of
nutrients, or various air pollutants.
Cholinesterase:
An enzyme found in animals that regulates nerve impulses by the inhibition of
acetylcholine. Cholinesterase inhibition is associated with a variety of acute
symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, blurred vision, stomach cramps, and rapid
heart rate.
Chromium:
(See: heavy metals.)
Chronic Effect:
An adverse effect on a human or animal in which symptoms recur frequently or
develop slowly over a long period of time.
Chronic Exposure:
Multiple exposures occurring over an extended period of time or over a
significant fraction of an animal's or human's lifetime (Usually seven years to
a lifetime.)
Chronic Toxicity:
The capacity of a substance to cause long-term poisonous health effects in
humans, animals, fish, and other organisms. (See: acute toxicity.)
Circle of Influence:
The circular outer edge of a depression produced in the water table by the
pumping of water from a well. (See: cone of depression.)
Cistern:
Small tank or storage facility used to store water for a home or farm; often
used to store rain water.
Clarification:
Clearing action that occurs during wastewater treatment when solids settle out.
This is often aided by centrifugal action and chemically induced coagulation in
wastewater.
Clarifier:
A tank in which solids settle to the bottom and are subsequently removed as
sludge.
Class I Area:
Under the Clean Air Act. a Class I area is one in which visibility is protected
more stringently than under the national ambient air quality standards; includes
national parks, wilderness areas, monuments, and other areas of special national
and cultural significance.
Class I Substance:
One of several groups of chemicals with an ozone depletion potential of 0.2 or
higher, including CFCS, Halons, Carbon Tetrachloride, and Methyl Chloroform
(listed in the Clean Air Act), and HBFCs and Ethyl Bromide (added by USEPA
regulations).
Class II Substance:
A substance with an ozone depletion potential of less than 0.2. All HCFCs are
currently included in this classification
Clay Soil:
Soil material containing more than 40 percent clay, less than 45 percent sand,
and less than 40 percent silt.
Clean Coal Technology:
Any technology not in widespread use prior to the Clean Air Act Amendments of
1990. This Act will achieve significant reductions in pollutants associated with
the burning of coal.
Clean Fuels:
Blends or substitutes for gasoline fuels, including compressed natural gas,
methanol, ethanol, and liquefied petroleum gas.
Cleanup:
Actions taken to deal with a release or threat of release of a hazardous
substance that could affect humans and/or the environment. The term "cleanup" is
sometimes used interchangeably with the terms remedial action, removal action,
response action, or corrective action.
Clear Cut:
Harvesting all the trees in one area at one time, a practice that can encourage
fast rainfall or snowmelt runoff, erosion, sedimentation of streams and lakes,
and flooding, and destroys vital habitat.
Clear Well:
A reservoir for storing filtered water of sufficient quantity to prevent the
need to vary the filtration rate with variations in demand. Also used to provide
chlorine contact time for disinfection.
Climate Change
(also referred to as 'global climate change'): The term 'climate change' is
sometimes used to refer to all forms of climatic inconsistency, but because the
Earth's climate is never static, the term is more properly used to imply a
significant change from one climatic condition to another. In some cases,
'climate change' has been used synonymously with the term, 'global warming';
scientists however, tend to use the term in the wider sense to also include
natural changes in climate.
Closed-Loop Recycling:
Reclaiming or reusing wastewater for non-potable purposes in an enclosed
process.
Closure:
The procedure a landfill operator must follow when a landfill reaches its legal
capacity for solid ceasing acceptance of solid waste and placing a cap on the
landfill site.
Co-fire:
Burning of two fuels in the same combustion unit; e.g., coal and natural gas, or
oil and coal.
Coagulation:
Clumping of particles in wastewater to settle out impurities, often induced by
chemicals such as lime, alum, and iron salts.
Coal Cleaning Technology:
A pre-combustion process by which coal is physically or chemically treated to
remove some of its sulfur so as to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions.
Coal Gasification:
Conversion of coal to a gaseous product by one of several available
technologies.
Coastal Zone:
Lands and waters adjacent to the coast that exert an influence on the uses of
the sea and its ecology, or whose uses and ecology are affected by the sea.
Code of Federal Regulations (CFR):
Document that codifies all rules of the executive departments and agencies of
the federal government. It is divided into fifty volumes, known as titles. Title
40 of the CFR (referenced as 40 CFR) lists all environmental regulations.
Cogeneration:
The consecutive generation of useful thermal and electric energy from the same
fuel source.
Coke Oven:
An industrial process which converts coal into coke, one of the basic materials
used in blast furnaces for the conversion of iron ore into iron.
Cold Temperature CO:
A standard for automobile emissions of carbon monoxide (CO) emissions to be met
at a low temperature (i.e. 20 degrees Fahrenheit). Conventional automobile
catalytic converters are not efficient in cold weather until they warm up.
Coliform Index:
A rating of the purity of water based on a count of fecal bacteria.
Coliform Organism:
Microorganisms found in the intestinal tract of humans and animals. Their
presence in water indicates fecal pollution and potentially adverse
contamination by pathogens.
Collector Sewers:
Pipes used to collect and carry wastewater from individual sources to an
interceptor sewer that will carry it to a treatment facility.
Colloids:
Very small, finely divided solids (that do not dissolve) that remain dispersed
in a liquid for a long time due to their small size and electrical charge.
Combined Sewer Overflows:
Discharge of a mixture of storm water and domestic waste when the flow capacity
of a sewer system is exceeded during rainstorms.
Combined Sewers:
A sewer system that carries both sewage and storm-water runoff. Normally, its
entire flow goes to a waste treatment plant, but during a heavy storm, the
volume of water may be so great as to cause overflows of untreated mixtures of
storm water and sewage into receiving waters. Storm-water runoff may also carry
toxic chemicals from industrial areas or streets into the sewer system.
Combustion:
1. Burning, or rapid oxidation, accompanied by release of energy in the form of
heat and light. 2. Refers to controlled burning of waste, in which heat
chemically alters organic compounds, converting into stable inorganics such as
carbon dioxide and water.
Combustion Chamber:
The actual compartment where waste is burned in an incinerator.
Combustion Product:
Substance produced during the burning or oxidation of a material.
Command Post:
Facility located at a safe distance upwind from an accident site, where the
on-scene coordinator, responders, and technical representatives make response
decisions, deploy manpower and equipment, maintain liaison with news media, and
handle communications.
Command-and-Control Regulations:
Specific requirements prescribing how to comply with specific standards defining
acceptable levels of pollution.
Comment Period:
Time provided for the public to review and comment on a proposed USEPA action or
rulemaking after publication in the Federal Register.
Commercial Waste:
All solid waste emanating from business establishments such as stores, markets,
office buildings, restaurants, shopping centers, and theaters.
Commercial Waste Management Facility:
A treatment, storage, disposal, or transfer facility which accepts waste from a
variety of sources, as compared to a private facility which normally manages a
limited waste stream generated by its own operations.
Community:
In ecology, an assemblage of populations of different species within a specified
location in space and time. Sometimes, a particular subgrouping may be
specified, such as the fish community in a lake or the soil arthropod community
in a forest.
Community Relations:
An effort to establish two-way communication with the public to create
understanding of regulatory programs and related actions, to ensure public input
into decision-making processes related to affected communities, and to be
responsive to public concerns. Specific community relations activities are
required in relation to Superfund remedial actions.
Community Water System:
A public water system which serves at least 15 service connections used by
year-round residents or regularly serves at least 25 year-round residents.
Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL):
Small fluorescent lamps used as more efficient alternatives to incandescent
lighting. Also called PL, CFL, Twin-Tube, or BIAX lamps.
Comparative Risk Assessment:
Process that generally uses the judgment of experts to predict effects and set
priorities among a wide range of environmental problems.
Complete Treatment:
A method of treating water that consists of the addition of coagulant chemicals,
flash mixing, coagulation-flocculation, sedimentation, and filtration. Also
called conventional filtration.
Compliance Coal:
Any coal that emits less than 1.2 pounds of sulfur dioxide per million Btu when
burned. Also known as low sulfur coal.
Compliance Cycle:
The 9-year calendar year cycle, beginning January 1, 1993, during which public
water systems must monitor. Each cycle consists of three 3-year compliance
periods.
Compliance Monitoring:
Collection and evaluation of data, including self-monitoring reports, and
verification to show whether pollutant concentrations and loads contained in
permitted discharges are in compliance with the limits and conditions specified
in the permit.
Compliance Schedule:
A negotiated agreement between a pollution source and a government agency that
specifies dates and procedures by which a source will reduce emissions and,
thereby, comply with a regulation.
Composite Sample:
A series of water samples taken over a given period of time and weighted by flow
rate.
Compost:
A humus or soil-like material created from aerobic, microbial decomposition of
organic materials such as food scraps, yard trimmings, and manure
Compressed Natural Gas (CNG):
An alternative fuel for motor vehicles; considered one of the cleanest because
of low hydrocarbon emissions and its vapors are relatively non-ozone producing.
However, vehicles fueled with CNG do emit a significant quantity of nitrogen
oxides.
Concentration:
The relative amount of a substance mixed with another substance. An example is
five part per million (ppm) of carbon monoxide in air or 1 mg/l of iron in
water.
Condensate:
1.Liquid formed when warm landfill gas cools as it travels through a collection
system. 2. Water created by cooling steam or water vapor.
Condensate Return System:
System that returns the heated water condensing within steam piping to the
boiler and thus saves energy.
Conditionally Exempt Generators (CE):
Persons or enterprises which produce less than 220 pounds of hazardous waste per
month. Exempt from most regulation, they are required merely to determine
whether their waste is hazardous, notify appropriate state or local agencies,
and ship it by an authorized transporter to a permitted facility for proper
disposal. (See : small quantity generator.)
Conductance:
A rapid method of estimating the dissolved solids content of water supply by
determining the capacity of a water sample to carry an electrical current.
Conductivity is a measure of the ability of a solution to carry and electrical
current.
Conductivity:
A measure of the ability of a solution to carry an electrical current.
Cone of Depression:
A depression in the water table that develops around a pumped well.
Cone of Influence:
The depression, roughly conical in shape, produced in a water table by the
pumping of water from a well.
Cone Penetrometer Testing (CPT):
A direct push system used to measure lithology based on soil penetration
resistance. Sensors in the tip of the cone of the DP rod measure tip resistance
and side-wall friction, transmitting electrical signals to digital processing
equipment on the ground surface. (See: direct push.)
Confidential Business Information (CBI):
Material that contains trade secrets or commercial or financial information that
has been claimed as confidential by its source (e.g. a pesticide or new chemical
formulation registrant). USEPA has special procedures for handling such
information.
Confidential Statement of Formula (CSF):
A list of the ingredients in a new pesticide or chemical formulation. The list
is submitted at the time for application for registration or change in
formulation.
Confined Aquifer:
An aquifer in which groundwater is confined under pressure which is
significantly greater than atmospheric pressure.
Confluent Growth:
A continuous bacterial growth covering all or part of the filtration area of a
membrane filter in which the bacteria colonies are not discrete.
Consent Decree:
A legal document, approved by a judge, that formalizes an agreement reached
between USEPA and potentially responsible parties (PRPs) through which PRPs will
conduct all or part of a cleanup action at a Superfund site; cease or correct
actions or processes that are polluting the environment; or otherwise comply
with USEPA initiated regulatory enforcement actions to resolve the contamination
at the Superfund site involved. The consent decree describes the actions PRPs
will take and may be subject to a public comment period.
Conservation:
Preserving and renewing, when possible, human and natural resources. The use,
protection, and improvement of natural resources according to principles that
will ensure their highest economic or social benefits.
Conservation Easement:
Easement restricting a landowner to land uses that that are compatible with
long-term conservation and environmental values.
Constituent(s) of Concern:
Specific chemicals that are identified for evaluation in the site assessment
process
Construction and Demolition Waste:
Waste building materials, dredging materials, tree stumps, and rubble resulting
from construction, remodeling, repair, and demolition of homes, commercial
buildings and other structures and pavements. May contain lead, asbestos, or
other hazardous substances.
Construction Ban:
If, under the Clean Air Act, USEPA disapproves an area's planning requirements
for correcting nonattainment, USEPA can ban the construction or modification of
any major stationary source of the pollutant for which the area is in
nonattainment.
Consumptive Water Use:
Water removed from available supplies without return to a water resources
system, e.g. water used in manufacturing, agriculture, and food preparation.
Contaminant:
Any physical, chemical, biological, or radiological substance or matter that has
an adverse effect on air, water, or soil.
Contamination:
Introduction into water, air, and soil of microorganisms, chemicals, toxic
substances, wastes, or wastewater in a concentration that makes the medium unfit
for its next intended use. Also applies to surfaces of objects, buildings, and
various household and agricultural use products.
Contamination Source Inventory:
An inventory of contaminant sources within delineated State Water-Protection
Areas. Targets likely sources for further investigation.
Contingency Plan:
A document setting out an organized, planned, and coordinated course of action
to be followed in case of a fire, explosion, or other accident that releases
toxic chemicals, hazardous waste, or radioactive materials that threaten human
health or the environment. (See: National Oil and Hazardous Substances
Contingency Plan.)
Continuous Discharge:
A routine release to the environment that occurs without interruption, except
for infrequent shutdowns for maintenance, process changes, etc.
Continuous Sample:
A flow of water, waste or other material from a particular place in a plant to
the location where samples are collected for testing. May be used to obtain grab
or composite samples.
Contour Plowing:
Soil tilling method that follows the shape of the land to discourage erosion.
Contour Strip Farming:
A kind of contour farming in which row crops are planted in strips, between
alternating strips of close-growing, erosion-resistant forage crops.
Contract Labs:
Laboratories under contract to USEPA or state regulatory agencies, which analyze
samples taken from waste, soil, air, and water or carry out research projects.
Control Technique Guidelines (CTG):
USEPA documents designed to assist state and local pollution authorities to
achieve and maintain air quality standards for certain sources (e.g. organic
emissions from solvent metal cleaning known as degreasing) through reasonably
available control technologies (RACT).
Controlled Reaction:
A chemical reaction under temperature and pressure conditions maintained within
safe limits to produce a desired product or process.
Conventional Filtration:
(See: complete treatment.)
Conventional Pollutants:
Statutorily listed pollutants understood well by scientists. These may be in the
form of organic waste, sediment, acid, bacteria, viruses, nutrients, oil and
grease, or heat.
Conventional Site Assessment:
Assessment in which most of the sample analysis and interpretation of data is
completed off-site; process usually requires repeated mobilization of equipment
and staff in order to fully determine the extent of contamination.
Conventional Systems:
Systems that have been traditionally used to collect municipal wastewater in
gravity sewers and convey it to a central primary or secondary treatment plant
prior to discharge to surface waters.
Conventional Tilling:
Tillage operations considered standard for a specific location and crop and that
tend to bury the crop residues; usually considered as a base for determining the
cost effectiveness of control practices.
Conveyance Loss:
Water loss in pipes, channels, conduits, ditches by leakage or evaporation.
Cooling Tower:
A structure that helps remove heat from water used as a coolant; e.g., in
electric power generating plants.
Cooling Tower:
Device which dissipates the heat from water-cooled systems by spraying the water
through streams of rapidly moving air.
Core:
The uranium-containing heart of a nuclear reactor, where energy is released.
Core Program Cooperative Agreement:
An assistance agreement whereby USEPA supports states or tribal governments with
funds to help defray the cost of non-item-specific administrative and training
activities.
Corrective Action:
Under RCRA, USEPA can require treatment, storage and disposal (TSDF) facilities
handling hazardous waste to undertake corrective actions to clean up spills
resulting from failure to follow hazardous waste management procedures or other
mistakes. The process includes cleanup procedures designed to guide TSDFs toward
in spills.
Corrosion:
The dissolution and wearing away of metal caused by a chemical reaction such as
between water and the pipes, chemicals touching a metal surface, or contact
between two metals.
Corrosive:
A chemical agent that reacts with the surface of a material causing it to
deteriorate or wear away.
Cost/Benefit Analysis:
A quantitative evaluation of the costs which would have incurred by implementing
an environmental regulation versus the overall benefits to society of the
proposed action.
Cost Recovery:
A legal process by which potentially responsible parties who contributed to
contamination at a Superfund site can be required to reimburse the Trust Fund
for money spent during any cleanup actions by the federal government.
Cost Sharing:
A publicly financed program through which society, as a beneficiary of
environmental protection, shares part of the cost of pollution control with
those who must actually install the controls. In Superfund, for example, the
government may pay part of the cost of a cleanup action with those responsible
for the pollution paying the major share.
Cost-Effective Alternative:
An alternative control or corrective method identified after analysis as being
the best available in terms of reliability, performance, and cost. Although
costs are one important consideration, regulatory and compliance analysis does
not require USEPA to choose the least expensive alternative. For example, when
selecting or approving a method for cleaning up a Superfund site, the Agency
balances costs with the long-term effectiveness of the methods proposed and the
potential danger posed by the site.
Cover Material:
Soil used to cover compacted solid waste in a sanitary landfill.
Cradle-to-Grave or Manifest System:
A procedure in which hazardous materials are identified and followed as they are
produced, treated, transported, and disposed of by a series of permanent,
linkable, descriptive documents (e.g. manifests). Commonly referred to as the
cradle-to-grave system.
Criteria Pollutants:
The 1970 amendments to the Clean Air Act required USEPA to set National Ambient
Air Quality Standards for certain pollutants known to be hazardous to human
health. USEPA has identified and set standards to protect human health and
welfare for six pollutants: ozone, carbon monoxide, total suspended
particulates, sulfur dioxide, lead, and nitrogen oxide. The term, "criteria
pollutants" derives from the requirement that USEPA must describe the
characteristics and potential health and welfare effects of these pollutants. It
is on the basis of these criteria that standards are set or revised.
Critical Effect:
The first adverse effect, or its known precursor, that occurs as a dose rate
increases. Designation is based on evaluation of overall database.
Cross Contamination:
The movement of underground contaminants from one level or area to another due
to invasive subsurface activities.
Cross-Connection:
Any actual or potential connection between a drinking water system and an
unapproved water supply or other source of contamination.
Cryptosporidium:
A protozoan microbe associated with the disease cryptosporidiosis in man. The
disease can be transmitted through ingestion of drinking water, person-to-person
contact, or other pathways, and can cause acute diarrhea, abdominal pain,
vomiting, fever, and can be fatal as it was in the Milwaukee episode.
Cubic Feet Per Minute (CFM):
A measure of the volume of a substance flowing through air within a fixed period
of time. With regard to indoor air, refers to the amount of air, in cubic feet,
that is exchanged with outdoor air in a minute's time; i.e. the air exchange
rate.
Cullet:
Crushed glass.
Cultural Eutrophication:
Increasing rate at which water bodies "die" by pollution from human activities.
Cumulative Ecological Risk Assessment:
Consideration of the total ecological risk from multiple stressors to a given
eco-zone.
Cumulative Exposure:
The sum of exposures of an organism to a pollutant over a period of time.
Cumulative Working Level Months (CWLM):
The sum of lifetime exposure to radon working levels expressed in total working
level months.
Cutie-Pie:
An instrument used to measure radiation levels.
Cuttings:
Spoils left by conventional drilling with hollow stem auger or rotary drilling
equipment.
Cyclone Collector:
A device that uses centrifugal force to remove large particles from polluted
air.
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