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Glossary: Q
Qualitative Use Assessment:
Report summarizing the major uses of a pesticide including percentage of crop
treated, and amount of pesticide used on a site.
Quality Assurance/Quality Control:
A system of procedures, checks, audits, and corrective actions to ensure that
all USEPA research design and performance, environmental monitoring and
sampling, and other technical and reporting activities are of the highest
achievable quality.
Quench Tank:
A water-filled tank used to cool incinerator residues or hot materials during
industrial processes.
Glossary: R
Radiation:
Transmission of energy though space or any medium. Also known as radiant energy.
Radiation Standards:
Regulations that set maximum exposure limits for protection of the public from
radioactive materials.
Radioactive Decay:
Spontaneous change in an atom by emission of charged particles and/or gamma
rays; also known as radioactive disintegration and radioactivity.
Radioactive Substances:
Substances that emit ionizing radiation.
Radioactive Waste:
Any waste that emits energy as rays, waves, streams or energetic particles.
Radioactive materials are often mixed with hazardous waste, from nuclear
reactors, research institutions, or hospitals.
Radioisotopes:
Chemical variants of radioactive elements with potentially oncogenic,
teratogenic, and mutagenic effects on the human body.
Radionuclide:
Radioactive particle, man-made (anthropogenic) or natural, with a distinct
atomic weight number. Can have a long life as soil or water pollutant.
Radius of Vulnerability Zone:
The maximum distance from the point of release of a hazardous substance in which
the airborne concentration could reach the level of concern under specified
weather conditions.
Radius of Influence:
1. The radial distance from the center of a wellbore to the point where there is
no lowering of the water table or potentiometric surface (the edge of the cone
of depression); 2. the radial distance from an extraction well that has adequate
air flow for effective removal of contaminants when a vacuum is applied to the
extraction well.
Radon:
A colorless naturally occurring, radioactive, inert gas formed by radioactive
decay of radium atoms in soil or rocks.
Radon Daughters/Radon Progeny:
Short-lived radioactive decay products of radon that decay into longer-lived
lead isotopes that can attach themselves to airborne dust and other particles
and, if inhaled, damage the linings of the lungs.
Radon Decay Products:
A term used to refer collectively to the immediate products of the radon decay
chain. These include Po-218, Pb-214, Bi-214, and Po-214, which have an average
combined half-life of about 30 minutes.
Rasp:
A machine that grinds waste into a manageable material and helps prevent odor.
Raw Agricultural Commodity:
An unprocessed human food or animal feed crop (e.g., raw carrots, apples, corn,
or eggs.)
Raw Sewage:
Untreated wastewater and its contents.
Raw Water:
Intake water prior to any treatment or use.
Re-entry:
(In indoor air program) Refers to air exhausted from a building that is
immediately brought back into the system through the air intake and other
openings.
Reactivity:
Refers to those hazardous wastes that are normally unstable and readily undergo
violent chemical change but do not explode.
Reaeration:
Introduction of air into the lower layers of a reservoir. As the air bubbles
form and rise through the water, the oxygen dissolves into the water and
replenishes the dissolved oxygen. The rising bubbles also cause the lower waters
to rise to the surface where they take on oxygen from the atmosphere.
Real-Time Monitoring:
Monitoring and measuring environmental developments with technology and
communications systems that provide time-relevant information to the public in
an easily understood format people can use in day-to-day decision-making about
their health and the environment.
Reasonable Further Progress:
Annual incremental reductions in air pollutant emissions as reflected in a State
Implementation Plan that USEPA deems sufficient to provide for the attainment of
the applicable national ambient air quality standards by the statutory deadline.
Reasonable Maximum Exposure:
The maximum exposure reasonably expected to occur in a population.
Reasonable Worst Case:
An estimate of the individual dose, exposure, or risk level received by an
individual in a defined population that is greater than the 90th percentile but
less than that received by anyone in the 98th percentile in the same population.
Reasonably Available Control Measures (RACM):
A broadly defined term referring to technological and other measures for
pollution control.
Reasonably Available Control Technology (RACT):
Control technology that is reasonably available, and both technologically and
economically feasible. Usually applied to existing sources in nonattainment
areas; in most cases is less stringent than new source performance standards.
Recarbonization:
Process in which carbon dioxide is bubbled into water being treated to lower the
pH.
Receiving Waters:
A river, lake, ocean, stream or other watercourse into which wastewater or
treated effluent is discharged.
Receptor:
Ecological entity exposed to a stressor.
Recharge:
The process by which water is added to a zone of saturation, usually by
percolation from the soil surface; e.g., the recharge of an aquifer.
Recharge Area:
A land area in which water reaches the zone of saturation from surface
infiltration, e.g., where rainwater soaks through the earth to reach an aquifer.
Recharge Rate:
The quantity of water per unit of time that replenishes or refills an aquifer.
Reclamation:
(In recycling) Restoration of materials found in the waste stream to a
beneficial use which may be for purposes other than the original use.
Recombinant Bacteria:
A microorganism whose genetic makeup has been altered by deliberate introduction
of new genetic elements. The offspring of these altered bacteria also contain
these new genetic elements; i.e. they "breed true."
Recombinant DNA:
The new DNA that is formed by combining pieces of DNA from different organisms
or cells.
Recommended Maximum Contaminant Level (RMCL):
The maximum level of a contaminant in drinking water at which no known or
anticipated adverse effect on human health would occur, and that includes an
adequate margin of safety. Recommended levels are nonenforceable health goals.
(See: maximum contaminant level.)
Reconstructed Source:
Facility in which components are replaced to such an extent that the fixed
capital cost of the new components exceeds 50 percent of the capital cost of
constructing a comparable brand-new facility. New-source performance standards
may be applied to sources reconstructed after the proposal of the standard if it
is technologically and economically feasible to meet the standards.
Reconstruction of Dose:
Estimating exposure after it has occurred by using evidence within an organism
such as chemical levels in tissue or fluids.
Record of Decision (ROD):
A public document that explains which cleanup alternative(s) will be used at
National Priorities List sites where, under CERCLA, Trust Funds pay for the
cleanup.
Recovery Rate:
Percentage of usable recycled materials that have been removed from the total
amount of municipal solid waste generated in a specific area or by a specific
business.
Recycle/Reuse:
Minimizing waste generation by recovering and reprocessing usable products that
might otherwise become waste (.i.e. recycling of aluminum cans, paper, and
bottles, etc.).
Recycling and Reuse Business Assistance Centers:
Located in state solid-waste or economic-development agencies, these centers
provide recycling businesses with customized and targeted assistance.
Recycling Economic Development Advocates:
Individuals hired by state or tribal economic development offices to focus
financial, marketing, and permitting resources on creating recycling businesses.
Recycling Mill:
Facility where recovered materials are remanufactured into new products.
Recycling Technical Assistance Partnership National Network:
A national information-sharing resource designed to help businesses and
manufacturers increase their use of recovered materials.
Red Border:
An USEPA document undergoing review before being submitted for final management
decision-making.
Red Tide:
A proliferation of a marine plankton toxic and often fatal to fish, perhaps
stimulated by the addition of nutrients. A tide can be red, green, or brown,
depending on the coloration of the plankton.
Reduction:
The addition of hydrogen, removal of oxygen, or addition of electrons to an
element or compound.
Reentry Interval:
The period of time immediately following the application of a pesticide during
which unprotected workers should not enter a field.
Reference Dose (RfD):
The RfD is a numerical estimate of a daily oral exposure to the human
population, including sensitive subgroups such as children, which is not likely
to cause harmful effects during a lifetime. RfDs are generally used for health
effects that are thought to have a threshold or low dose limit for producing
effects.
Reformulated Gasoline:
Gasoline with a different composition from conventional gasoline (e.g., lower
aromatics content) that cuts air pollutants.
Regeneration:
Manipulation of cells to cause them to develop into whole plants.
Regional Response Team (RRT):
Representatives of federal, local, and state agencies who may assist in
coordination of activities at the request of the On-Scene Coordinator before and
during a significant pollution incident such as an oil spill, major chemical
release, or Superfund response.
Registrant:
Any manufacturer or formulator who obtains registration for a pesticide active
ingredient or product.
Registration:
Formal listing with USEPA of a new pesticide before it can be sold or
distributed. Under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act,
USEPA is responsible for registration (pre-market licensing) of pesticides on
the basis of data demonstrating no unreasonable adverse effects on human health
or the environment when applied according to approved label directions.
Registration Standards:
Published documents which include summary reviews of the data available on a
pesticide's active ingredient, data gaps, and the Agency's existing regulatory
position on the pesticide.
Regulated Asbestos-Containing Material (RACM):
Friable asbestos material or nonfriable ACM that will be or has been subjected
to sanding, grinding, cutting, or abrading or has crumbled, or been pulverized
or reduced to powder in the course of demolition or renovation operations.
Regulated Medical Waste:
Under the Medical Waste Tracking Act of 1988, any solid waste generated in the
diagnosis, treatment, or immunization of human beings or animals, in research
pertaining thereto, or in the production or testing of biologicals.
Relative Ecological Sustainability:
Ability of an ecosystem to maintain relative ecological integrity indefinitely.
Relative Permeability:
The permeability of a rock to gas, NAIL, or water, when any two or more are
present.
Relative Risk Assessment:
Estimating the risks associated with different stressors or management actions.
Release:
Any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging,
injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing into the environment of a
hazardous or toxic chemical or extremely hazardous substance.
Remedial Action (RA):
The actual construction or implementation phase of a Superfund site cleanup that
follows remedial design.
Remedial Design:
A phase of remedial action that follows the remedial investigation/feasibility
study and includes development of engineering drawings and specifications for a
site cleanup.
Remedial Investigation:
An in-depth study designed to gather data needed to determine the nature and
extent of contamination at a Superfund site; establish site cleanup criteria;
identify preliminary alternatives for remedial action; and support technical and
cost analyses of alternatives. The remedial investigation is usually done with
the feasibility study. Together they are usually referred to as the "RI/FS".
Remedial Project Manager (RPM):
The USEPA or state official responsible for overseeing on-site remedial action.
Remedial Response:
Long-term action that stops or substantially reduces a release or threat of a
release of hazardous substances that is serious but not an immediate threat to
public health.
Remediation:
1. Cleanup or other methods used to remove or contain a toxic spill or hazardous
materials from a Superfund site; 2. for the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response
program, abatement methods including evaluation, repair, enclosure,
encapsulation, or removal of greater than 3 linear feet or square feet of
asbestos-containing materials from a building.
Remote Sensing:
The collection and interpretation of information about an object without
physical contact with the object; e.g., satellite imaging, aerial photography,
and open path measurements.
Removal Action:
Short-term immediate actions taken to address releases of hazardous substances
that require expedited response. (See: cleanup.)
Renewable Energy Production Incentive (REPI):
Incentive established by the Energy Policy Act available to renewable energy
power projects owned by a state or local government or nonprofit electric
cooperative.
Repeat Compliance Period:
Any subsequent compliance period after the initial one.
Reportable Quantity (RQ):
Quantity of a hazardous substance that triggers reports under CERCLA. If a
substance exceeds its RQ, the release must be reported to the National Response
Center, the SERC, and community emergency coordinators for areas likely to be
affected.
Repowering:
Rebuilding and replacing major components of a power plant instead of building a
new one.
Representative Sample:
A portion of material or water that is as nearly identical in content and
consistency as possible to that in the larger body of material or water being
sampled.
Reserve Capacity:
Extra treatment capacity built into solid waste and wastewater treatment plants
and interceptor sewers to accommodate flow increases due to future population
growth.
Reservoir:
Any natural or artificial holding area used to store, regulate, or control
water.
Residential Use:
Pesticide application in and around houses, office buildings, apartment
buildings, motels, and other living or working areas.
Residual:
Amount of a pollutant remaining in the environment after a natural or
technological process has taken place; e.g., the sludge remaining after initial
wastewater treatment, or particulates remaining in air after it passes through a
scrubbing or other process.
Residual Risk:
The extent of health risk from air pollutants remaining after application of the
Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT).
Residual Saturation:
Saturation level below which fluid drainage will not occur.
Residue:
The dry solids remaining after the evaporation of a sample of water or sludge.
Resistance:
For plants and animals, the ability to withstand poor environmental conditions
or attacks by chemicals or disease. May be inborn or acquired.
Resource Recovery:
The process of obtaining matter or energy from materials formerly discarded.
Response Action:
1. Generic term for actions taken in response to actual or potential
health-threatening environmental events such as spills, sudden releases, and
asbestos abatement/management problems. 2. A CERCLA-authorized action involving
either a short-term removal action or a long-term removal response. This may
include but is not limited to: removing hazardous materials from a site to an
USEPA-approved hazardous waste facility for treatment, containment or treating
the waste on-site, identifying and removing the sources of ground-water
contamination and halting further migration of contaminants. 3. Any of the
following actions taken in school buildings in response to AHERA to reduce the
risk of exposure to asbestos: removal, encapsulation, enclosure, repair, and
operations and maintenance. (See: cleanup.)
Responsiveness Summary:
A summary of oral and/or written public comments received by USEPA during a
comment period on key USEPA documents, and USEPA's response to those comments.
Restoration:
Measures taken to return a site to pre-violation conditions.
Restricted Entry Interval:
The time after a pesticide application during which entry into the treated area
is restricted.
Restricted Use:
A pesticide may be classified (under FIFRA regulations) for restricted use if it
requires special handling because of its toxicity, and, if so, it may be applied
only by trained, certified applicators or those under their direct supervision.
Reuse:
Using a product or component of municipal solid waste in its original form more
than once; e.g., refilling a glass bottle that has been returned or using a
coffee can to hold nuts and bolts.
Reverse Osmosis:
A treatment process used in water systems by adding pressure to force water
through a semi-permeable membrane. Reverse osmosis removes most drinking water
contaminants. Also used in wastewater treatment. Large-scale reverse osmosis
plants are being developed.
Reversible Effect:
An effect which is not permanent; especially adverse effects which diminish when
exposure to a toxic chemical stops.
Ribonucleic Acid (RNA):
A molecule that carries the genetic message from DNA to a cellular
protein-producing mechanism.
Rill:
A small channel eroded into the soil by surface runoff; can be easily smoothed
out or obliterated by normal tillage.
Ringlemann Chart:
A series of shaded illustrations used to measure the opacity of air pollution
emissions, ranging from light grey through black; used to set and enforce
emissions standards.
Riparian Habitat:
Areas adjacent to rivers and streams with a differing density, diversity, and
productivity of plant and animal species relative to nearby uplands.
Riparian Rights:
Entitlement of a land owner to certain uses of water on or bordering the
property, including the right to prevent diversion or misuse of upstream waters.
Generally a matter of state law.
Risk:
A measure of the probability that damage to life, health, property, and/or the
environment will occur as a result of a given hazard.
Risk (Adverse) for Endangered Species:
Risk to aquatic species if anticipated pesticide residue levels equal one-fifth
of LD10 or one-tenth of LC50; risk to terrestrial species if anticipated
pesticide residue levels equal one-fifth of LC10 or one-tenth of LC50.
Risk Assessment:
Qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the risk posed to human health and/or
the environment by the actual or potential presence and/or use of specific
pollutants.
Risk Characterization:
The last phase of the risk assessment process that estimates the potential for
adverse health or ecological effects to occur from exposure to a stressor and
evaluates the uncertainty involved.
Risk Communication:
The exchange of information about health or environmental risks among risk
assessors and managers, the general public, news media, interest groups, etc.
Risk Estimate:
A description of the probability that organisms exposed to a specific dose of a
chemical or other pollutant will develop an adverse response, e.g., cancer.
Risk Factor:
Characteristics (e.g., race, sex, age, obesity) or variables (e.g., smoking,
occupational exposure level) associated with increased probability of a toxic
effect.
Risk for Non-Endangered Species:
Risk to species if anticipated pesticide residue levels are equal to or greater
than LC50.
Risk Management:
The process of evaluating and selecting alternative regulatory and
non-regulatory responses to risk. The selection process necessarily requires the
consideration of legal, economic, and behavioral factors.
Risk-based Targeting:
The direction of resources to those areas that have been identified as having
the highest potential or actual adverse effect on human health and/or the
environment.
Risk-Specific Dose:
The dose associated with a specified risk level.
River Basin:
The land area drained by a river and its tributaries.
Rodenticide:
A chemical or agent used to destroy rats or other rodent pests, or to prevent
them from damaging food, crops, etc.
Rotary Kiln Incinerator:
An incinerator with a rotating combustion chamber that keeps waste moving,
thereby allowing it to vaporize for easier burning.
Rough Fish:
Fish not prized for sport or eating, such as gar and suckers. Most are more
tolerant of changing environmental conditions than are game or food species.
Route of Exposure:
The avenue by which a chemical comes into contact with an organism, e.g.,
inhalation, ingestion, dermal contact, injection.
Run-Off:
That part of precipitation, snow melt, or irrigation water that runs off the
land into streams or other surface-water. It can carry pollutants from the air
and land into receiving waters.
Running Losses:
Evaporation of motor vehicle fuel from the fuel tank while the vehicle is in
use.
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