Glossary of Terms

Single celled organisms having no cellular nucleus. Pathogenic bacteria are capable of causing disease. Coliform bacteria are prolific in the intestines of warm blooded animals and are used as an indicator of fecal waste pollution.

Methods, measures or practices to prevent or reduce surface runoff and/or water pollution, including but not limited to, structural non-structural controls, operation and maintenance procedures, other requirements and scheduling and distribution of activities.

Biological oxygen demand

Cedar Creek Wildlife Project

Cubic feet per second

The flowing together of two or more streams. A point of juncture.

Combined Sewer Overflow

1. Release of water at a given point into a water body. 2. The rate and volume of flow of water such as in a stream, generally expressed as cubic feet per second.

Department of Natural Resources

Process of the stream channel bottom being rapidly and excessively eroded creating a deeply incised stream channel.

The system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their environment.

Environmental Protection Agency

Evapo-transpiration

The aging process by which lakes, estuaries, or water bodies are fertilized with nutrients. Natural eutrophication changes the character of a lake or water body, very gradually. Cultural eutrophication is the accelerated aging of a lake or water body resulting from human activities. The process by which nutrients increase in the water body, increasing algal growth. Then as algal blooms die off and fall to the bottom, their decay depletes the water body of dissolved oxygen, which in turn reduces the ability of the water body to support fish and other aquatic life.

An organism that is out of its naturally occurring range and environment, and occupying the habitat of native species.

The mechanical process which removes particulate matter by separating water from solid material, usually by passing it through sand. .

That portion of a stream valley adjacent to the channel that is created by erosion and sediment deposited from the stream and covered with water when the stream overflows its banks at flood stage. Also, the nearly level land situated on either side of a channel that is subject to overflow flooding.

Great Lakes Commission

Water that occurs in the subsurface and fills or saturates the porous openings, factures and fissures of under-ground soils and rock units.

The uppermost tributaries of a stream or river; often refers to first order streams.

The study of the properties, distribution, circulation, and effects of water on the Earth’s surface, soil, and atmosphere.

Indiana Department of Natural Resources

Ground cover that does not allow, or minimally allows, for infiltration of water (e.g., roofs, paved parking lots, and roads) and which increases the volume and speed of runoff after a rainfall.

A defined channel in which surface water is absent during a portion of the year, as ground water levels drop below the channel bottom.

The total amount (generally measured in pounds or kilograms per acre per year) of material (sediment, nutrients, oxygen-demanding material, or other chemicals or compounds) brought into a lake, stream or water body by inflowing streams, runoff, direct discharge through pipes, ground water, the air (aerial or atmosphere deposition) and other sources over a specific period of time (often annually).

The designation given by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to water-quality standards promulgated under the Safe Drinking Water Act. The MCL is the greatest amount of a contaminant that can be present in drinking water without causing a risk to human health.

Maumee River Basin Commission

A salt of nitric acid; a common water pollutant.

Nonpoint source

National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory (West Lafayette, Indiana)

A common basis of reporting water analysis. One part per million (PPM) equals one pound per million pounds of water. One part per billion (PPB) equals one pound per billion pounds of water.

1. The slow seepage of water into and through the ground. 2. The slow seepage of water through a filter medium 3. The movement, under hydrostatic pressure, of water through the interstices of a rock or soil.

Salt of phosphoric acid, often found in fertilizers.

The process of contaminating air, water and land with impurities to a level that is undesirable and results in a decrease in usefulness of the environment for beneficial purposes.

Parts per million

The replenishment of ground water through the infiltration of rainfall, other surface waters, or land application of water or treated wastewater.

The length of time that water, nutrients, or other chemical substances remain in a lake, impoundment or standing pool. .

Pertaining to anything connected with or immediately adjacent to the banks of a stream or other body of water.

Stones of varying size used to dissipate energy or stabilize a soil surface.

The relative proportion of salt in a solution, typically measured in g/l, or parts per thousand (ppt). Seawater is typically around 335 ppt.

Fragmented material that originated from weathering rocks and decomposing organic material that is transported by, suspended in, and eventually deposited in the streambed.

A flow process associated with broad, shallow water movement on sloping ground surfaces that is not channelized or concentrated.

Semisolid material such as the type precipitated by sewage treatment. Mud, mire, or ooze covering the ground or forming a deposit, as on a riverbed.

A point where ground water emerges (or seeps out) onto the surface of the ground, often forming the beginning of a stream.

Includes all rivers, creeks, brooks, tributaries and other flowing surface waters within a natural channel. More specifically, a perennial, intermittent, or ephemeral watercourse having a defined channel (excluding man-made ditches) which contains flow from surface and/or ground water sources during at least a portion of an average rainfall year. .

A numerical system (ranking from headwaters to river terminus) used to designate the relative position of a stream or stream segment in a drainage basin.

Water that is on Earth’s surface, such as in a stream, river, lake, or reservoir. A natural or artificial pond or lake used for the storage and regulation of water. .

A depression or wide shallow ditch used to temporarily store, route, infiltrate, filter, or convey runoff.

Soil and Water Conservation District

Total dissolved solids

A regulatory process that determines the volume or quantity of a given pollutant, calculated by watershed computer modeling, that can be assimilated by a receiving stream or water body on an average daily basis while maintaining the state designated water quality standard and designated use of the water body. Where existing pollutant loads to the receiving water body are in excess of the calculated TMDL, the responsibility for reducing the excess pollutant loads is allocated among existing sources of the pollutant to achieve the reductions necessary to re-attain the designated use of the water body.

Murkiness or cloudiness of water, indicating the presence of suspended sediments, dissolved solids, natural or man-made chemicals, algae, etc.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

An accounting of the movement of water through the components of the hydrologic cycle in a watershed, including precipitation, evapo-transpiration, surface runoff, ground water recharge, and ground water discharge to stream baseflow.

The upper-most level of saturation of pore space or fractures by subsurface water in an aquifer.

The land area that drains water into a particular stream, river or lake. It is a land feature that can be identified by tracing a line along the highest elevations between two areas on a map, often a ridge. Large watersheds, like the Mississippi River basin, contain thousands of smaller watersheds.

Low-lying areas inundated or saturated by water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support wetland vegetation (e.g. wetlands include such areas as swamps, marshes and wet meadows). Wetlands remove pollutants through a series of chemical, physical and biological mechanisms.