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| Rivers and Harbors Act | 1899 - Prohibited the construction of any bridge, dam, dike, or causeway over any navigable waterway without Congressional Approval. Also required Congressional approval for all wharfs, piers, or jetties, and the excavation or fill of navigable waters. |
| Water Pollutant Control Act | 1948 allowed the Surgeon General working w/ other governmental entities, to prepare a comprehensive program to eliminate/reduce the pollution of interstate waters and tributaries and improving the sanitary conditions of surface and underground waters. |
| Water Quality Act | 1965 - Established the Water Pollution Control Administration within the Department of the Interior. This was the first time water quality was treated as an environmental concern rather than a public health concern. |
| National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) | 1969 |
| National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) | Provides that any major federal action or policy that has significant impact on environ will require Environmental Impact Analysis (EIS) |
| Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) | Adresses: probable impact of proposed action; adverse environ effects that cannot be avoided; alternatives to proposed action;relationship btwn shortterm use man's environ & maint & enhancement of longterm productivity; irreversible & irretrievable commit |
| Coastal Zone Management Act 1972 | Mandates state programs to delinate coastal boundaries, regulate activities within them & inventory areas req. protection. |
| Federal Water Pollutant Control Act 1972 | Requires states to control water pollution |
| Clean Water Act 1977 | Amend to Fed Water Pollutant Control Act of 1972. Must have permit if discharge pollutants into body of water, amt of discharge regulated by ambient and effuent water quality stds. Excl ship sewage. |
| Clean Air (1990) | Federal government sets ambient air quality standards and states devise methods to meet the standards. |
| Clean Air Act | Air Quality Control Regions (AQCR) are airsheds of our communities |
| Clean Air Act | PSD stds dictate total ambient & effluent stds & new air pollutions not allowed unless reduce pollutants > than pollutants contributed by new source. |
| Ambient Standards | Standards for air & water quality relatiing to quality of receiving environ. Baseline for gauging improvements. |
| First Earth Day | April 22, 1970 |
| Metropolitan Water District of Southern California | Established in 1927, to build and operate the Colorado River Aqueduct. Aqueduct built between 1933 and 1941 and ran a water pipeline to Los Angeles. |
| Rachel Carson | Author of Silent Spring, published in 1962. Examined the dangers of chemical pesticides, such as DDT, on plants, animals, and humans. Major influential in the way people think about the environment. |
| Effluent Standards | Set restrictions on the discharge of pollutants into the environment. The EPA has effluent guidelines for more than 50 categories. |
| Point Source Pollution | Discharged directly from a specific site, such as a sewage treatment plant or an industrial pipe. |
| Non-point Source Pollution | Contaminated runoff from many sources. |
| Potable Water | Safe to drink. |
| Aquifer | One or more strata of rock or sediment that is saturated and sufficiently permeable to yield economically significant quantities of water to wells or springs. |
| Estuary | An area where fresh water meets salt water. |
| Lagoon | A shallow body of water that is located alongside a coast. |
| Marsh | A type of freshwater, brackish water or saltwater wetland found along rivers, ponds, lakes, and coasts. It does not accumulate appreciable peat deposits and is dominated by herbaceous vegetation. |
| Reservoir | A pond, lake, tank, or basin that can be used for the storage and control of water, and can be either natural or man-made. |
| Surface Water | Includes rivers, lakes, oceans, ocean-like water bodies, and coastal tidal waters. |
| Swamp | A freshwater wetland that has spongy, muddy land and a lot of water. |
| Watershed | A region drained by, or contributing water to, a surface water body. |
| Wetlands | Include swamps, marshes, bogs, and other similar areas. They are areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetland |
| Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) | Relates to air quality and requires that a project will not increase emissions above a specified increment. |
| Endangered Species Act | 1973 - Provided protection of animal and plant species that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designate as threatened or endangered. Act was later amended in 1988. |
| Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act (PURPA) | 1978 - Promoted alternative energy sources, energy efficiency, and reduced dependence on foreign oil. It also created a market for non-utility power producers and requires competition in the utility industry. |
| Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act | 1980 - Created a $1.6 billion Superfund to clean up abandoned hazardous waste sites and requires major industries to report annual releases of toxic wastes into the air, water, or ground. "Superfund Sites" |
| Brownfields | Land previously used for industrial purposes, or certain commercial uses, and that may be contaminated by low concentrations of hazardous waste or pollution and has the potential to be reused once it is cleaned up. |
| Greyfield | Economically obsolete, outdated, failing, moribund and/or underutilized real estate assets or land. Typically do not require remediation in order to unlock value to an investor. |
| EPA's Environmental Indicators Initiative | Numerical values from actual measurements of a pressure, state or ambient condition, exposure, human health, ecological condition over a specified geographic domain, whose trends over time represent/draw attention to underlying trends in the environment. |
| EPA's Environmental Indicators Initiative | Draft 2003 - Multiyear effort to identify credible indicators to answer key questions pertaining to the environment & human health and to understand/improve what is know about current state of the environment & identify where additional info is needed. |
| Biomass energy | Uses organic material which is burned to create energy. |
| Methane | Is a naturally occurring byproduct of decaying plant and animal material. Gas is burned to produce electricity. |
| Hydroelectric power | typically associated with large dams. It uses falling water to produce power, which is moved through a turbine, causing it to spin. The spinning turbine is coupled with a generator, which produces energy. |
| Solar Energy | uses photovoltaic panels to convert sunlight directly into electricity. The panels can be added together to create large systems. |
| Wind power | Uses tall turbines (100 feet plus) to convert wind to electrical power. Multipple turbines built close together, and they can be found in coastal, mountain, or other regions with a constant wind supply. |
| Insulation | Allows for more efficient heating of a building. |
| R-value | Ratings for insulationindicates the resistance to heat flow. The higher the number, the greater the insulating effectiveness. |
| LEED | Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), provides a list of standards for environmentally sustainable construction. |
| Greenfield | A piece of undeveloped land, either currently used for agriculture or just left to nature. |
| Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) | 1980 - Identifies potentially responsible parties (PRPs) for environmental contamination. Setup Federal “Superfund” to clean up uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous-waste sites. |
| R-20 | Minimum R-value recommended for home insulation? |
| Lowering a thermostat by 1 degree Fahrenheit can reduce a heating bill by what percent? | Up to 3 percent |
| Tennessee Valley Authority | Created in May 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development in a region particularly hard hit by the Great Depression. Served as a large-scale regional planning program. |
| National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) | The system for granting and regulating discharge permits. Regulates both point and non-point sources that discharge pollutants into waters of the U.S. |
| Secondary Treatment | A biological process to remove dissolved organic matter from wastewater. Sewage microorganisms are cultivated and added to the wastewater. The microorganisms absorb organic matter from sewage as their food supply. |
| Effluent | The discharge of pollutants into the environment in an untreated, partially treated, or completely treated state. |
| Mass Wasting | The downslope movement of earth materials due to the force of gravity. |
