Glossary of Common Terms.
303(d) List
The list of impaired and threatened waters (stream/river segments, lakes) that the Clean Water Act requires all states to submit for EPA approval every two years on even-numbered years.
Bacteria Implementation Group
The Bacteria Implementation Group (BIG) is a 35-member committee that has developed and is overseeing the Implementation Plan, or I-Plan, to remedy high levels of bacteria in waterways identified in Total Maximum Daily Load projects in the Houston Region.
Best Management Practices
A process to characterize the current and potential threats to human health and the environment that may be posed by contaminants migrating to groundwater or surface water; releasing to air; leaching through soil; remaining in the soil and bio-accumulating in the food chain.
Contact Recration
Any activity that involves coming in contact with water, including swimming, wading, and fishing.
Implementation / I-Plan (TMDL)
Formalized, written plan resulting from TMDL (regulatory path) that contains policy recommendations. Typically focuses on a single or very narrow set of parameters.
Implementation
The process of putting into place a holistic set of actions, as identified by WPPs, I-Plans, or other planning effort(s), to mitigate a broad set of parameters. For example, could include installation of pet waste stations, recycling endeavors, etc.
Nonpoint Source Pollution
Nonpoint source pullution is diffuse and does not have a point of origin / is not introduced into a receiving stream from a standard outlet. Common nonpoint sources are rain water, runoff from agricultural lands, industrial sites, parking lots, and timber operations, as well as escaping gases from pipes and fittings. Nonpoint source pollution is typically not permitted.
On-Site Sewage Faciliry (OSSF)
A wastewater system (often referred to as a "septic system") designed to treat and dispose of effluent on the same property that produces the wastewater.
Point Source Pollution
The term point source means any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance, including but not limited to any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock, concentrated animal feeding operation, or vessel or other floating craft, from which pollutants are or may be discharged. This term does not include agricultural storm water discharges and return flows from irrigated agriculture, but is permitted in the state of Texas.
Quality Assurance Project Plan
A Quality Assurance Project Plan is a written document that describes the quality assurance procedures, quality control specifications, and other technical
activities that must be implemented to ensure that the results of the project or task to be performed will meet project specifications. Primary data collection, secondary data usage, and data processing (such as modeling) project activities funded by EPA are described and documented in QA Project Plans.
Riparian Zones
Stream channels and corridors around a watershed.
Supplemental Environmental Project
Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEP) are environmentally beneficial projects that a respondent agrees to undertake in settlement of an enforcement action but which the respondent is not otherwise legally required to perform, unless the project is a Compliance SEP performed by a local government. Dollars directed to TCEQ-approved environmental projects may be used to offset assessed penalties in enforcement actions.
Total Maximum Daily Load
Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) is a regulatory process triggered by impairments in a specific stream segment or segments that calculates the maximum amount of a pollutant that a waterbody can receive and still meet water quality standards. TMDLs calculate allocation of that load among the various sources of that pollutant, with sources characterized as either point sources that receive a wasteload allocation, or nonpoint sources that receive a load allocation.
Wastewater Treatment Facility
A Wastewater Treatment Facility is designed to receive the wastewater from domestic sources and to remove materials that damage water quality and threaten public health and safety when discharged into receiving streams or bodies of water.
Watershed Protection Plan
A Watershed Protection Plan (WPP) is a coordinated framework for implementing prioritized and integrated water quality protection and restoration strategies driven by environmental objectives.
Watershed
Area of land that drains rainfall to a common water body.
Sources:
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
http://www.tceq.texas.gov/
Environmental Protection Agency
http://www.epa.gov/
The list of impaired and threatened waters (stream/river segments, lakes) that the Clean Water Act requires all states to submit for EPA approval every two years on even-numbered years.
Bacteria Implementation Group
The Bacteria Implementation Group (BIG) is a 35-member committee that has developed and is overseeing the Implementation Plan, or I-Plan, to remedy high levels of bacteria in waterways identified in Total Maximum Daily Load projects in the Houston Region.
Best Management Practices
A process to characterize the current and potential threats to human health and the environment that may be posed by contaminants migrating to groundwater or surface water; releasing to air; leaching through soil; remaining in the soil and bio-accumulating in the food chain.
Contact Recration
Any activity that involves coming in contact with water, including swimming, wading, and fishing.
Implementation / I-Plan (TMDL)
Formalized, written plan resulting from TMDL (regulatory path) that contains policy recommendations. Typically focuses on a single or very narrow set of parameters.
Implementation
The process of putting into place a holistic set of actions, as identified by WPPs, I-Plans, or other planning effort(s), to mitigate a broad set of parameters. For example, could include installation of pet waste stations, recycling endeavors, etc.
Nonpoint Source Pollution
Nonpoint source pullution is diffuse and does not have a point of origin / is not introduced into a receiving stream from a standard outlet. Common nonpoint sources are rain water, runoff from agricultural lands, industrial sites, parking lots, and timber operations, as well as escaping gases from pipes and fittings. Nonpoint source pollution is typically not permitted.
On-Site Sewage Faciliry (OSSF)
A wastewater system (often referred to as a "septic system") designed to treat and dispose of effluent on the same property that produces the wastewater.
Point Source Pollution
The term point source means any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance, including but not limited to any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock, concentrated animal feeding operation, or vessel or other floating craft, from which pollutants are or may be discharged. This term does not include agricultural storm water discharges and return flows from irrigated agriculture, but is permitted in the state of Texas.
Quality Assurance Project Plan
A Quality Assurance Project Plan is a written document that describes the quality assurance procedures, quality control specifications, and other technical
activities that must be implemented to ensure that the results of the project or task to be performed will meet project specifications. Primary data collection, secondary data usage, and data processing (such as modeling) project activities funded by EPA are described and documented in QA Project Plans.
Riparian Zones
Stream channels and corridors around a watershed.
Supplemental Environmental Project
Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEP) are environmentally beneficial projects that a respondent agrees to undertake in settlement of an enforcement action but which the respondent is not otherwise legally required to perform, unless the project is a Compliance SEP performed by a local government. Dollars directed to TCEQ-approved environmental projects may be used to offset assessed penalties in enforcement actions.
Total Maximum Daily Load
Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) is a regulatory process triggered by impairments in a specific stream segment or segments that calculates the maximum amount of a pollutant that a waterbody can receive and still meet water quality standards. TMDLs calculate allocation of that load among the various sources of that pollutant, with sources characterized as either point sources that receive a wasteload allocation, or nonpoint sources that receive a load allocation.
Wastewater Treatment Facility
A Wastewater Treatment Facility is designed to receive the wastewater from domestic sources and to remove materials that damage water quality and threaten public health and safety when discharged into receiving streams or bodies of water.
Watershed Protection Plan
A Watershed Protection Plan (WPP) is a coordinated framework for implementing prioritized and integrated water quality protection and restoration strategies driven by environmental objectives.
Watershed
Area of land that drains rainfall to a common water body.
Sources:
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
http://www.tceq.texas.gov/
Environmental Protection Agency
http://www.epa.gov/