Urban Runoff And Water Quality Terms

Front 1

BMP

Back 1

Best Management Practices

Front 2

FAWB

Back 2

Facility for Advancing Water Biofiltration

Front 3

PFC

Back 3

Permeable Friction Course

Hint 3

Construct a surface course composed of a compacted permeable mixture of aggregate, asphalt binder, and additives mixed hot in a mixing plant.

Front 4

Drawdown

Back 4

The act, process, or result of depleting

Front 5

EBF

Back 5

Eco Bio Filter

Hint 5

Treats stormwater runoff from roads.
A constructed, underground filtration system.

Front 6

FTP

Back 6

File Transfer Protocol

Hint 6

Standard network protocol used to copy a file from one host to another over a TCP/IP-based network, such as the Internet.

Front 7

Tc

Back 7

Time of Concentration

Hint 7

The time of concentration (Tc) refers to the amount of time it takes for water to travel
from the most distant point to the watershed outlet.

Front 8

Sump

Back 8

Manhole

Hint 8

A low-lying place, such as a pit, that receives drainage.

A cesspool.

A hole at the lowest point of a mine shaft into which water is drained in order to be pumped out.

Front 9

RSC

Back 9

Regenerative Stormwater Conveyance

Hint 9

Open-channel, sand seepage filtering systems that treat and safely detain and convey storm flow, and convert stormwater to groundwater through infiltration.

They utilize a series of shallow aquatic pools, riffle weir grade controls, native vegetation, and underlying sand channels.

RSC systems combine features and treatment benefits of swales, infiltration, filtering, and wetland practices.

Front 10

TMDL

Back 10

Total Maximum Daily Load

Hint 10

A Total Maximum Daily Load, or TMDL, is a calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant that a waterbody can receive and still safely meet water quality standards.

Front 11

SDWA

Back 11

Safe Drinking Water Act

Hint 11

The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) is the main federal law that ensures the quality of Americans' drinking water. Under SDWA, EPA sets standards for drinking water quality and oversees the states, localities, and water suppliers who complement those standards.

Front 12

CWA

Back 12

Clean Water Act

Hint 12

The statute employs a variety of regulatory and nonregulatory tools to sharply reduce direct pollutant discharges into waterways, finance municipal wastewater treatment facilities, and manage polluted runoff.

Front 13

CSO

Back 13

Combined Sewage Overflow

Hint 13

Both sewage and storm water flow into one pipe.

Ex. Instead of allowing water to back up into people's basements during a rainstorm, the combined sewer system allows the polluted water to be discharged directly into the Rouge River.

Front 14

MS4

Back 14

Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems

Hint 14

Polluted stormwater runoff is commonly transported through Municipal Separate Storm Sewer
Systems (MS4s), from which it is often discharged untreated into local waterbodies. To prevent
harmful pollutants from being washed or dumped into an MS4, operators must obtain a NPDES
permit and develop a stormwater management program.

Front 15

NPDES

Back 15

National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System

Hint 15

As authorized by the Clean Water Act, the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program controls water pollution by regulating point sources that discharge pollutants into waters of the United States.

Front 16

Karst topography

Back 16

Karst topography is a landscape shaped by the dissolution of a layer or layers of soluble bedrock, usually carbonate rock such as limestone or dolomite.[1]

Front 17

Tomography

Back 17

Tomography is imaging by sections or sectioning, through the use of waves of energy.[1] A device used in tomography is called a tomograph, while the image produced is a tomogram.

Front 18

ETJ

Back 18

Extraterritorial Jurisdiction

Hint 18

The legal ability of a government to exercise authority beyond its normal boundaries.

Front 19

Ecohydrology

Back 19

An interdisciplinary field studying the interactions between water and ecosystems.

from Greek
oikos, "house(hold)"
hydōr, "water"
logia, "study"

Hint 19

These interactions may take place within water bodies, such as rivers and lakes, or on land, in forests, deserts, and other terrestrial ecosystems.

Areas of research in ecohydrology include transpiration and plant water use, adaption of organisms to their water environment, influence of vegetation on stream flow and function, and feedbacks between ecological processes and the hydrological cycle.

Front 20

Horton overland flow

Back 20

describes the tendency of water to flow horizontally across land surfaces when rainfall has exceeded infiltration capacity and depression storage capacity.

Hint 20

It is named after Robert E. Horton, the ecologist who made the first detailed studies of the phenomenon.

Front 21

Hillslope

Back 21

Hillslopes constitute the flanks of valleys and the margins of eroding uplands. They are the major zones where rock and soil are loosened by weathering processes and then transported down gradient, often to a river channel.

Front 22

Upland

Back 22

High ground, as opposed to meadow or marsh.
Ground not liable to flooding.

Hint 22

Many definitions and scales of reference.

Upland from lower area, valley
Upland from sea
Upland from marsh

Front 23

Riparian

Back 23

Living or growing on the banks of rivers and streams; relating to or characteristic of the transitional zone between dry land and running water.

Front 24

Tensiometer

Back 24

An instrument for measuring the surface tension of a liquid or soil water.

Front 25

Receiving Waters

Back 25

A river, lake, ocean, stream or other watercourse into which wastewater or treated effluent is discharged.

Front 26

ESC

Back 26

Erosion & Sediment Control

Front 27

Thalweg

Back 27

The line in the bottom of a valley in which the slopes of the two sides meet, and which forms a natural watercourse;

Also the line following the deepest part of the bed or channel of a river or lake.

Front 28

Weir

Back 28

A barrier or dam to restrain water, esp. one placed across a river or canal in order to raise or divert the water for driving a mill wheel.

Also, the body of water retained by this means, a mill-dam; now gen., a dam, of which there are various forms, constructed on the reaches of a canal or navigable river, to retain the water and regulate its flow.