water pollution
Any physical or chemical change in surface water or groundwater that can harm living organisms or make water unfit for certain uses.
Subject:
Chapter 19 - Water Pollution
tertiary sewage treatment
See advanced sewage treatment.
Subject:
subsidence
Slow or rapid sinking of part of the earth's crust that is not slope related.
Subject:
stream
Flowing body of surface water. Examples are creeks and rivers.
Subject:
sludge
Gooey mixture of toxic chemicals, infectious agents, and settled solids removed from wastewater at a sewage treatment plant.
Subject:
septic tank
Underground tank for treating wastewater from a home in rural and suburban areas. Bacteria in the tank decompose organic wastes, and the sludge settles to the bottom of the tank. The effluent flows out of the tank into the ground through a field of drainpipes.
Subject:
Secondary sewage treatment
Second step in most waste treatment systems in which aerobic bacteria break down up to 90% of degradable, oxygen-demanding organic wastes in wastewater. This usually involves bringing sewage and bacteria together in trickling filters or in the activated sludge process. Compare advanced sewage treatment, primary sewage treatment.
Subject:
primary sewage treatment
Mechanical sewage treatment in which large solids are filtered out by screens and suspended solids settle out as sludge in a sedimentation tank. Compare advanced sewage treatment, secondary sewage treatment.
Subject:
point source
Single identifiable source that discharges pollutants into the environment. Examples are the (1) smokestack of a power plant or an industrial plant, (2) drainpipe of a meatpacking plant, (3) chimney of a house, or (4) exhaust pipe of an automobile. Compare nonpoint source.
Subject:
parts per trillion (ppt)
Number of parts of a chemical found in 1 trillion parts of a particular gas, liquid, or solid.
Subject:
Pages
Need Help?
We hope your visit has been a productive one. If you're having any problems, or would like to give some feedback, we'd love to hear from you.
For general help, questions, and suggestions, try our dedicated support forums.
If you need to contact the Course-Notes.Org web experience team, please use our contact form.
Need Notes?
While we strive to provide the most comprehensive notes for as many high school textbooks as possible, there are certainly going to be some that we miss. Drop us a note and let us know which textbooks you need. Be sure to include which edition of the textbook you are using! If we see enough demand, we'll do whatever we can to get those notes up on the site for you!
