AGSM 105WaterTermsSanitationSP24

• Water Quality


  A term used to describe the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water, usually in respect to its suitability for a particular purpose
• Domestic water use


  Water used for household purposes, such as drinking, food preparation, bathing, washing clothes, dishes, and dogs, flushing toilets, and watering lawns and gardens
• About 85% of domestic water is delivered to homes by a public-supply facility, such as a county water department
• About 15% of the Nation's population supply their own water, mainly from wells
• Commercial water use


  Water used for motels, hotels, restaurants, office buildings, other commercial facilities, and institutions
• Water for commercial uses comes both from public-supplied sources, such as a county water department, and self-supplied sources, such as local wells
• Livestock water use


  Water used for livestock watering, feed lots, dairy operations, fish farming, and other on-farm needs
• Watershed


  The land area that drains water to a particular stream, river, or lake
• Watershed 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
• Public Water Supply


  Water withdrawn by public governments and agencies, such as a county water department, and by private companies that is then delivered to users
• Public suppliers provide water for domestic, commercial, thermoelectric power, industrial, and public water users
• Most people's household water is delivered by a public water supplier
• The systems have at least 15 service connections (such as households, businesses, or schools) or regularly serve at least 25 individuals daily for at least 60 days out of the year
• CFS – Cubic Feet per Second

  Rate of the flow, in streams and rivers, for example. It is equal to a volume of water one foot high and one foot wide flowing a distance of one foot in one second. One "cfs" is equal to 7.48 gallons of water flowing each second.
• As an example, if your car's gas tank is 2 feet by 1 foot by 1 foot (2 cubic feet), then gas flowing at a rate of 1 cubic foot/second would fill the tank in two seconds.
• Conveyance loss

  Water that is lost in transit from a pipe, canal, or ditch by leakage or evaporation. Generally, the water is not available for further use; however, leakage from an irrigation ditch, for example, may percolate to a groundwater source and be available for further use.
• Drainage basin


  Land area where precipitation runs off into streams, rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. 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 drainage basins, like the area that drains into the Mississippi River contain thousands of smaller drainage basins. Also called a "watershed."
• Consumptive use


  Part (percentage) of water withdrawn that is evaporated, transpired by plants, incorporated into products or crops, consumed by humans or livestock, or otherwise removed from the immediate water environment. Also referred to as water consumed.
• Drawdown


  A lowering of the groundwater surface caused by pumping.
• Artificial Recharge


  Process where water is put back into groundwater storage from surface-water supplies such as irrigation, or induced infiltration from streams or wells.
• Sources of Artificial Recharge

  • Lakes
  • Rivers
  • Surface water
  • Treated city water
• Injection well


  Well constructed for the purpose of injecting treated wastewater directly into the ground. Wastewater is generally forced (pumped) into the well for dispersal or storage into a designated aquifer. Injection wells are generally drilled into aquifers that don't deliver drinking water, unused aquifers, or below freshwater levels.
• Drip irrigation


  Method where pipes or tubes filled with water slowly drip onto crops. Drip irrigation is a low-pressure method of irrigation. Less water is lost to evaporation than high-pressure spray irrigation.
• Effluent


  Water that flows from a sewage treatment plant after it has been treated.
• Erosion


  The process in which a material (soil) is worn away by a stream of liquid (water) or air, often due to the presence of abrasive particles in the stream.
• Nutrients or chemicals attached to the eroding soil particles are relocated. Sometimes this results in negative, unintended consequences like polluted water.
• Long-distance transportation of soil, displaced nutrients and chemicals, and impact on portion of Gulf of Mexico ecosystem-wildlife in the Mississippi River Basin and Erosion.
• Estuary

  A place where fresh and saltwater mix, such as a bay, salt marsh, or where a river enters an ocean.
• Evaporation -- Transpiration -- Evapotranspiration


  • Evaporation--the process of liquid water becoming water vapor, including vaporization from water surfaces, land surfaces, and snow fields, but not from leaf surfaces.
  • Transpiration--process by which water that is absorbed by plants, usually through the roots, is evaporated into the atmosphere from the plant surface, such as leaf pores.
  • Evapotranspiration--the sum of evaporation and transpiration.
• Tributary

  A smaller river or stream that flows into a larger river or stream. Usually, a number of smaller tributaries merge to form a river.
• Turbidity


  The amount of solid particles that are suspended in water and that cause light rays shining through the water to scatter. Turbidity makes the water cloudy or even opaque in extreme cases. Turbidity is measured in nephelometric turbidity units (NTU).
• Nephelometric turbidity unit (NTU)


  Unit of measure for the turbidity of water. A measure of the cloudiness of water as measured by a nephelometer. Turbidity is based on the amount of light that is reflected off particles in the water.
• Flood plain


  A strip of relatively flat and normally dry land alongside a stream, river, or lake that is covered by water during a flood.
• Flood stage

  The elevation at which overflow of the natural banks of a stream or body of water begins in the reach or area in which the elevation is measured.
• Giardiasis


  A disease that results from an infection by the protozoan parasite Giardia Intestinalis, caused by drinking water that is either not filtered or not chlorinated. The disorder is more prevalent in children than in adults. Characterized by abdominal discomfort, nausea, and alternating constipation and diarrhea.
• Cryptosporidium


  Microscopic parasite that causes the diarrheal disease cryptosporidiosis. Both the parasite and the disease are commonly known as "Crypto". Symptoms include watery diarrhea, stomach cramps or pain, dehydration, nausea, vomiting, and fever.
• Maximum contaminant level (MCL)


  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.
• Milligrams per liter (mg/l)


  A unit of the concentration of a constituent in water or wastewater. It represents 0.001 gram of a constituent in 1 liter of water. It is approximately equal to one part per million (PPM).
• Groundwater


  • Water that flows or seeps downward and saturates soil or rock, supplying springs and wells. The upper surface of the saturate zone is called the water table.
  • Water stored underground in rock crevices and in the pores of geologic materials that make up the Earth's crust.