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Groundwater Pollution Vocabulary Animal wastes: Pet, livestock, or poultry wastes Aquiclude: A formation of rock or sediment that acts as a barrier to groundwater flow. Aquicludes are made up of low porosity and low permeability rock/sediment such as shale or clay. Aquifer: An underground geologic formation that stores and transmits water of sufficient quantity to be a usable supply for residential or industrial uses. Base flow: Streamflow fed by groundwater seepage into the stream Bedrock: The solid rock beneath the soil or other unconsolidated material. Best Management Practices (BMPs): structural, vegetative, or management practices designed to control, prevent, remove or reduce pollution. Capillary action: The means by which liquid moves through porous spaces in a solid, such as soil and plant roots, due to the forces of adhesion, cohesion and surface tension. Consumptive use: That part of water that is withdrawn that is evaporated, transpired by plants, incorporated into products or crops, consumed by humans or livestock, or otherwise removed from the local environment. Contaminant: A substance of natural or human origin found in the air, water, or land that causes harm. Direct water use: Water that is used for drinking, cooking, cleaning, irrigating, etc. Discharge: The volume of water that passes a given location within a given period of time, usually recorded in cubic feet per second. 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. Drawdown: A lowering of the groundwater table caused by over pumping. Groundwater: Water that seeps downward and saturates the spaces between soil or rock particles. The upper surface of the saturated zone is called the water table. 1 Groundwater recharge: Inflow of water to an aquifer from the surface via infiltration of precipitation. Impermeable layer: A layer of solid material, such as rock or clay, that does not allow water to pass through. Impervious: Not allowing water to pass through. Indirect water use: Human use of products that required water to grow or manufacture them. Industrial: Having to do with the extraction of resources or the manufacture of goods, such as steel, chemicals, paper and petroleum refining. Infiltration: Movement of water from the land surface into the soil or groundwater. Injection well: A well used for injecting wastes or wastewater directly into groundwater for dispersal or injecting water into a designated aquifer for storage. Irrigation: The process of supplying water to areas of land to make them suitable for growing crops. Land Use: The way humans use the land, such as industry, residential, commercial, recreation, etc. Leachate: Contaminated water leaking into the soil or groundwater from a landfill Particle size: The diameter of suspended sediment or bed material. Particle-size classifications are: [1] Clay -0.00024-0.004mm; [2] Silt – 0.004-0.062 mm; Sand – 0.062-2.0 mm; Gravel – 2.0 - 64.0mm Percolation: The movement of water through the tiny spaces between rock and soil particles. Permeability: The ability of a material to allow the passage of water. Permeable materials, such as gravel and sand, allow water to move quicklt through them, whereas less permeable material, such as clay, does not allow water to move freely. Pervious: Allowing water to pass through or seep into. Porosity: A measure of water-bearing capacity of sub-surface rock that is due to both the number and size of pores and the extent which they are connected. Porous: Containing pore spaces that allow water to move through. Recharge: Water added to an aquifer; for example, rain water that seeps into the ground. River: Flowing water of considerable volume, larger than a brook, stream or creek. Runoff: Precipitation or snow melt that travels over the land surface to enter streams, rivers, lakes and storm drains. 2 Saturated zone: Area where water fill all the pore spaces between rock or soil particles, typically called groundwater. Seepage: Slow movement of water through small, cracks, pores, interstices, etc. of material in or out of a body surface of water. Also describes the loss of water by infiltration into the soil from a canal, ditches, laterals, watercourse, reservoir, storage facilities, or other body of water, or from a field. Septic system: System that includes a tank for holding household wastes that allows the settling of solids prior to distribution to a leach field fro soil absorption. Stewardship: take care of something Surface tension: The attraction of molecules to each other on a liquid’s surface. Thus a barrier is created between the air and the liquid. Surface water: Water that is on Earth’s surface, such as in a stream, river, lake or reservoir. Unsaturated zone: The zone immediately below the land surface where the pores contain both water and air. The zone differs from an aquifer, where all the pore spaces are saturated with water. Water table: The top of the water surface in the saturated part of an aquifer. Water use: Water that is used for a specific purpose, such as for domestic use, irrigation or industrial processing. Well: A bored, drilled, or a driven shaft, or a dug hole put down by any method for the purposes of withdrawing water from an underground aquifer Withdrawal: process of removing water from a ground or surface water source for use. 3