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CESSWI Definitions Exam With Complete
Solutions A+ Graded
Plant Transpiration - ANSWER The loss of water from parts of plants especially leaves but also stems, flowers, and roots.
Plunge - ANSWER Flow with a strong downward component, as in outfall drops, overbank falls, and surf attack on a beach.
Point of Concentration - ANSWER That point at which the water flowing from a given drainage area concentrates.
Point Sources - ANSWER A source of pollutants from a single point of conveyance such as a pipe. For example, the discharge pipe from a sewage treatment plant or factory is a point source.
Steady Stream - ANSWER A term used by river engineers applying to a stream that over a period of time is neither degrading nor aggrading its channel, and is nearly in equilibrium as to sediment transport and supply.
PAHs Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Chemical compounds that contain fused aromatic rings and do not contain heteroatoms or carry substituents. These occur in oil, coal and tar deposits and are produced as by products of fuel burning whether in the form of fossil fuel or biomass. Of concern, as a pollutant, since some compounds have been identified to be carcinogenic, mutagenic and teratogenic.
Positive Projecting Conduit - ANSWER A structure placed in shallow trench with the top of the conduit projecting above the top of the trench and then covered with embankment. (See Negative Projecting Conduit.)
Potamology - ANSWER The hydrology of streams.
Practicable - ANSWER Capable of being done within reasonable natural, social, and economic constraints.
Rainfall - ANSWER Discharge of atmospheric moisture as rain, snow or hail, measured in depth of fall or in terms of intensity of fall in unit time.
Prescriptive Rights - ANSWER The operation of the law whereby rights may be established by long exercise of their corresponding powers or extinguished by prolonged failure to exercise such powers.
Preserve - ANSWER To prevent alteration to the functions of the natural floodplain environment or to keep it, as closely as practicable, in its natural state.
Probability - ANSWER The likelihood of occurrence or recurrence of a specified event within a unit of time, commonly expressed in 3 ways. Thus a 10-year flood has a likelihood of 0.1 per year and is also termed a 10%-chance flood.
Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW) - ANSWER A waste-treatment works owned by a state, unit of local government, or Indian tribe, usually designed to treat domestic wastewaters.
Quality Assurance Project Plan QAPP ANSWER The QAPP has been created by the EPA as a tool for project managers and planners to document the type and quality of data required for environmental decisions, and to describe the methods for collecting and assessing those data. The development, review, approval and implementation of the QAPP are all components of EPA's required Quality System.
Rainfall - ANSWER Point Precipitation: That which registers at a single gauge. Area Precipitation: Adjusted point rainfall for area size.
Rainwash - ANSWER The creep of soil lubricated by rain.
provide for the discharge of the base flood so that the cumulative increase in water surface elevation is no more than a designated amount (not to exceed 0.3048 m as established by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for administering the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP)).
Regulatory Framework - ANSWER A particular set of laws, rules, procedures, and agencies designed to control a particular type of activity or to solve a specific program.
Reliction - ANSWER Relating to left behind. Example: that portion of land is left behind by reliction in case the water surface of a lake is lowered.
Repose - ANSWER Stable slope of a bank or embankment, expressed as an angle or the ratio of horizontal to vertical projection.
Restore - ANSWER To reestablish a setting or environment inwhich the functions of the natural and beneficial floodplain values adversely impacted by a development can continue to operate.
Restriction - ANSWER Artificial or natural control against widening of a channel, with or without construction.
D retard - ANSWER Bank-protection structure designed to check the riparian velocity and induce silting or accretion.
Detention basin ANSWER Either natural or man-made basin but with the specific purpose of delaying the flow of water from one point to another. This tends to increase the time taken for all the water falling on the extremities of the drainage basin to reach a common point, resulting in reduced peak flow at that point.
Retention - ANSWER The holding of runoff in a basin without release except by means of evaporation, infiltration, or emergency bypass.
Retention Storage - ANSWER Water that accumulates and ponds in natural or excavated
depressions in the soil surface with no possibility for escape as runoff. (See Detention Storage)
Retrogression - ANSWER Reversal of stream grading; i.e., aggradation after degradation, or vice versa.
Revegetation - ANSWER Planting of indigenous plants to replace natural vegetation that is damaged or removed as a result of construction projects or permit requirements.
Revètement - ANSWER Bank protection to prevent erosion.
Rill Erosion - ANSWER The formation of numerous, closely spaced streamlets due to uneven detachment of surface soils by runoff on slopes.
Riparian - ANSWER Pertaining to the banks of a stream.
Ripple - ANSWER (1) The light fretting or ruffling of a water caused by a breeze. (2) Undulating ridges and furrows, or crests and troughs formed by action of the flow.
Riprap - ANSWER A layer, facing, or protective mound of broken concrete, sacked concrete, rock, rubble, or stones randomly placed to prevent erosion, scour, or sloughing of a structure or embankment; also, the stone used for this purpose.
Riser - ANSWER In terrain where much debris is encountered, the entrance to a culvert sometimes becomes easily clogged. Therefore, a corrugated metal pipe or a structure made of timber or concrete with small perforations, called a riser, is installed vertically to permit entry of water and prohibit the entry of mud and debris. The riser may be increased in height as the need occurs.
Risk - ANSWER The consequences associated with the probability of flooding attributable to an encroachment. It includes the potential for property loss and hazard to life during the service life of the structure or project.
Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) - ANSWER A condition whereby untreated sewage is discharged into the environment prior to reaching treatment facilities thereby escaping wastewater treatment.
Sand - ANSWER Granular soil coarser than silt and finer than gravel, ranging in diameter from 0.05 to 5 mm.
Scour - ANSWER The effect of erosive action of running water, mainly in streams, excavating and removing material from the bed and banks. Wearing away by abrasive action.
Secondary Containment - ANSWER Structures, usually dikes or berms, surrounding tanks or other storage containers and designed to catch spilled material from the storage containers.
Sediment - ANSWER Fragmentary material that originates from weathering of rocks and is transported by, suspended in, or deposited by water.
Sedimentation - ANSWER Gravitational deposit of transported material in flowing or standing water.
Seepage - ANSWER Percolation of underground water through the banks and into a stream or other body of water.
Semi-Arid Area - ANSWER Area receiving between 10 and 20 inches of rainfall per year.
Septic System - ANSWER A self-contained sewage treatment system that holds wastewater in an underground storage area and relies on bacterial action to decompose solid waste matter.
Septic Tank - ANSWER A sewage sedimentation tank in which some of the sewage is reduced to gases and sludge before the remaining waste is discharged by gravity into an underground leaching bed. This is usually done in areas where there is no public
sewer available.
Sequestration - ANSWER The temporary retention or binding of elements or compounds in solution by the addition of specific chemical compounds.
Sheet Erosion - ANSWER The process of erosion of thin layers of soil by sheets of flowing water.
Sheet Flow - ANSWER Any flow spread out and not confined; i.e., flow across a flat open field.
Sheet Pile - ANSWER A pile with a generally slender, flat cross-section that is driven into ground or bottom of a water body and meshed or interlocked with like members to form a wall or bulkhead.
Shoal - ANSWER A shoal is a shallow region in either flowing or standing water, particularly if the depth is the result of deposition.
Shoaling - ANSWER Shoaling involves deposition of alluvial material that produces areas of generally shallow depth.
Shore - ANSWER Shore - the narrow strip of land in immediate contact with the water, including the zone between high and low water lines. See backshore, foreshore, onshore, offshore, longshore, and nearshore.
Silt - ANSWER (1) Water-borne sediment. Detritus carried in suspension or deposited by flowing water, ranging in diameter from 0.005 to 0.05 mm. The term is generally confined to fine earth, sand, or mud, but is sometimes both suspended and bedload. (2) Deposits of water-borne material, as in a reservoir, on a delta, or on a floodplain.
Sinuosity - ANSWER The ratio of length of river thalweg to length of valley proper.
Source Water Protection - ANSWER Refers to the concept of protecting source water (including water from lakes, rivers and underground aquifers) from overuse and contamination. Part of a multi-barrier approach to protect municipal sources of drinking water.
Specific Energy - ANSWER The energy contained in a stream of water, expressed in terms of head, referred to the bed of a stream. It is equal to the mean depth of water plus the velocity head of the mean velocity.
Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure SPCC Plan - ANSWER Plan to help prevent any discharge of oil into navigable waters or adjoining shorelines.
Spur Dike - ANSWER A structure or embankment projecting a short distance into a stream from the bank and at an angle to deflect flowing water away from critical areas.
Stage - ANSWER The elevation of a water surface above its minimum; also above or below an established "low water" plane; hence above or below any datum of reference; gage height.
State Revolving Fund-SRF ANSWER A revolving loan fund operated by a state in the U.S. to provide lowinterest loans for investment in water and sanitation infrastructure - such as sewage treatment and stormwater management facilities and drinking water treatment - and the implementation of nonpoint source pollution control and estuary protection projects. The initial capital for a SRF comes from federal grants and state contributions. It issues then bonds collateralized by the original capital. It then "revolves" through the repayment of principal and the payment of interest on outstanding loans.
Steady Flow - ANSWER A flow in which the flow rate or quantity of fluid passing a given point per unit of time remains constant.
Stone - ANSWER Rock or rock-like material; a particle of such material, in any size from pebble to the largest quarried blocks.
Storage - ANSWER Detention, or retention of water for future flow, naturally in channel and marginal soils or artificially in reservoirs.
Storage Basin - ANSWER Space for detention or retention of water for future flow, naturally in channel and marginal soils, or artificially in reservoirs.
Storm - ANSWER A disturbance of the normal, mean conditions of the atmosphere that, unless specifically qualified, may include any or all meteorological disturbances, such as wind, rain, snow, hail, or thunder.
Storm Drain - ANSWER That part of a drainage system specifically designed to collect and convey former surface water in an enclosed conduit. Commonly referred to as a "storm sewer", storm drains include inlet structures, conduit, junctions, manholes, outfalls and other appurtenances.
Stormwater - ANSWER Stormwater runoff, snow melt runoff, and surface runoff and drainage.
Stormwater Management ANSWER The identification of adverse drainage caused by altered runoff and the solutions which flow from combined efforts of public entities and the private sector to reduce, eliminate or undo those adverse effects.
SWPPP - ANSWER A plan required by stormwater regulations or permits that includes site map(s), an identification of construction/contractor activities that could cause pollutants in the stormwater, and a description of measures or practices to control these pollutants.
Stormwater Retrofitting - ANSWER The process by which structural controls are constructed to serve and reduce the water quantity and quality impacts from existing developed areas.
Stormwater Utility (called a stormwater authority in Pennsylvania) - ANSWER A
Sump - ANSWER In drainage, any low area that does not permit the escape of water by gravity flow.
Supercritical Flow - ANSWER In this state, inertia forces are dominant, so that flow has a high velocity and is usually described as rapid, shooting and torrential. Also defined as flow that has a Froude number greater than one.
Support Base Floodplain Development - ANSWER To encourage, allow, serve, or otherwise facilitate more base floodplain development. Direct support results from an encroachment, while indirect support results from an action out of the base floodplain.
Surcharge - ANSWER A condition where the hydraulic capacity of the storm drain system is temporarily exceeded (e.g., during a storm event), and the amount of water that enters the system exceeds the conveyance capacity.
Surf ANSWER The breaking of waves and swells on the foreshore and offshore shoals.
Surface Runoff ANSWER The movement of water on earth's surface, whether flow is over surface of ground or in channels.
Surface Waters ANSWER Surface waters are those which have been precipitated on the land from the sky, or forced to the surface in springs, and which have then spread over the surface of the ground without being collected into a definite body or channel. They appear as puddles, sheet or overland flow, and rills, and continue to be surface waters until they disappear from the surface by infiltration or evaporation, or until by overland or vagrant flow they reach well-defined watercourses or standing bodies of water like lakes or seas.
Surfactants - ANSWER Wetting agents that lower the surface tension of a liquid, allowing easier spreading, and lower the interfacial tension between two liquids.
Surge - ANSWER (1) A sudden swelling of discharge in unsteady flow. (2) A large mass of moving water, such as a wave or swell. Also a heavy, violent swelling motion, such as a surge of water through a storm drain during a heavy rain.
Suspended Load - ANSWER Sediment that is supported by the upward components of turbulent currents in a stream and that stay in suspension for appreciable amount of time.
Suspended Solids - ANSWER Organic or inorganic particles that are suspended in and carried by the water. The term includes sand, mud and clay particles as well as solids in wastewater.
Swale - ANSWER A shallow, gentle depression in the earth's surface. This tends to collect the waters to some extent and is considered in a sense as a drainage course, although waters in a swale are not considered stream waters.
Swamp - ANSWER An area of shallow ponding or saturated surface, the water being fresh or acidic and the area usually covered with rank vegetation.
Swell - ANSWER Waves generated by a distant storm, typically regular and fully harmonic.
Talus - ANSWER Loose rocks and debris disintegrated from a steep hill or cliff standing at repose along the toe.
Tapered Inlet - ANSWER A transition to direct the flow of water into a channel or culvert. A smooth transition to increase hydraulic efficiency of an inlet structure.
Temporary Construction Site BMPs - ANSWER BMPs that are needed only temporarily to mitigate a short-term storm water contamination threat. Examples include silt fences, which are situated near the toe of newly graded slopes with a large area of exposed soil. As rain falls, the silt fence filters and captures sediment from runoff flowing off the slope.
Terrace - ANSWER Berm or bench-like earth embankment, with a nearly level plain bounded by rising and falling slopes.
Total Suspended Solids (TSS) - ANSWER Weight of particles that are suspended in water. Suspended solids in water reduce light penetration in the water column can clog the gills of fish and invertebrates and are often associated with toxic contaminants because organics and metals tend to bind to particles.
Transition - ANSWER A relatively short reach or conduit leading from one waterway section to another of different width, shape, or slope.
Transport - ANSWER To carry solid material in a stream in solution, suspension, saltation, or entrainment.
Trash Rack - ANSWER A grid or screen across a stream designed to catch floating debris.
Tributary - ANSWER A river or stream that flows into a larger river or stream.
Trough - ANSWER Area between wave crests and the water surface beneath it.
Trunk (or Trunk Line) - ANSWER In a stormwater drainage system, the main conduit to carry the stormwaters. This is usually quite deep in the ground so that laterals coming from substantial distances can drain by gravity into the trunk line.
Turbidity - ANSWER The amount of material suspended in the water. As turbidity increases, the amount of light that penetrates the water column decreases. High turbidity levels are harmful to aquatic life.
Turbulence - ANSWER That state of flow in which the water is agitated by cross-currents and eddies, as opposed to a condition of flow that is quiet and laminar.
Turbulent Flow - ANSWER That type of flow in which any particle may move in any direction with respect to any other particle, and in which the head loss is approximately proportional to the square of the velocity.
Ultraviolet (UV) Disinfection - ANSWER A means of killing or rendering harmless microorganisms in a dedicated environment. These microorganisms can range from bacteria and viruses to algae and protozoa.
Undercut - ANSWER Erosion of the low part of a steep bank so as to compromise stability of the upper part.
Underflow - ANSWER The downstream flow of water through the permeable deposits that underlie a stream. (1) Movement of water through a pervious subsurface stratum, the flow of percolating water; or water under ice, or under a structure. (2) The rate of flow or discharge of subsurface water.
Undertow - ANSWER Current outward from a wave-swept shore carrying solid particles swept or scoured from the beach or foreshore.
Unsteady Flow - ANSWER A flow in which the velocity changes with respect to space and time.
Urban Runoff ANSWER A substance, such as rain, that runs off of surfaces in a watershed in excess of the amount absorbed by the surfaces (usually the ground). Urban runoff can contain sediments and contaminants (nonpoint source pollution) that can add to water quality degradation in the watershed. Increases in impervious surface usually result in increased urban runoff.
Velocity - ANSWER The speed of movement of objects or particles, or of a stream of particles.
Vernal Pools - ANSWER Vernal pools are seasonally flooded landscape depressions that support distinctive (andmany times rare) plant and animal species adapted to periodic or continuous inundation during the wet season, and the absence of either ponded water or wet soil during the dry season.
disposal site in wetlands) nor were formed from the damming of waters of the United States.
Watershed - ANSWER Area that drains surface water runoff into a tributary system or water course.
Watercourse - ANSWER (1) That part of a stream which is actually occupied by water. (2) An inland body of water capable of navigation.
Wave - ANSWER (1) An oscillatory movement of water on or near the surface of standing water in which a succession of crests and troughs advance while particles of water follow cyclic paths without advancing. (2) Motion of water in a flowing stream so as to develop the surficial appearance of a wave.
Wave Height - ANSWER The vertical distance between a wave crest and the preceding trough.
Wave Length - ANSWER The horizontal distance between similar points on two successive waves, such as crest to crest or trough to trough, measured in the direction of wave travel.
Wave Period - ANSWER The time in which a wave crest travels a distance equal to one wave length. Can be measured as the time for two successive wave crests to pass a fixed point.
Weephole - ANSWER A hole in a wall, invert, apron, lining, or other solid structure to relieve the pressure of groundwater.
Weir - ANSWER A low overflow dam or sill for measuring, diverting, or checking flow.
Well - ANSWER (1) An artificial excavation for withdrawal of water from underground storage. (2) The upward component of velocity in a stream.
Wellhead Protection Actions preventing contamination of the groundwater including source water assessments, vulnerability assessments, wellhead protection plans, and well abandonment.
Wetland - ANSWER Those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas.
Wet Weather Flow - ANSWER Rainfall (stormwater) runoff.
Dry Weather Flows - ANSWER Discharges in separate storm system conveyances (which may or may not be illicit) during dry weather periods from sources including but not limited to lawn watering, irrigation, wash water, liquid wastes, or springs.
Easement - ANSWER Right to use the land of others.
Effluent - ANSWER An outflowing of water or gas from a natural body of water, or from a man-made structure. Effluent in the man-made sense is generally considered to be water pollution, such as the outflow from a sewage treatment facility or the wastewater discharge from industrial facilities.
Effluent Limitations Guidelines (ELGs) - ANSWER Any restriction imposed by the US EPA on quantities, discharge rates, and concentrations of pollutants which are discharged from point sources into waters of the United States, the waters of the contiguous zone, or the ocean as authorized by the Clean Water Act.
Embankment - ANSWER Earth structure above natural ground.
Embayment - ANSWER Indentation of bank or shore, particularly as caused by progressive erosion.
