CESSWI Definitions – Complete Guide
Absorption ✔️Ans - Absorption of particles of gas or liquid into a liquid or
solid material.
Adsorption ✔️Ans - The process by which a liquid or gas adsorbate is
adsorbed by an adsorbent, forming a film on the adsorbent's surface. (aka it
sticks to the surface).
Aerobic Digestion ✔️Ans - The breakdown of wastes by microorganisms in
the presence of dissolved oxygen.
Algae ✔️Ans - One-celled or multi-celled plamts that are either suspended in
water or attached to submerged rocks or other materials. Their abundance is
measured by the amount of chlorophyll a within a water sample.
Ambient Water Quality ✔️Ans - Water quality of a waterbody measured
immediately upstream (or outside) of the influence of a particular source of
pollutants or pollutant parameters during average flow conditions.
Aenaerobic Digestion ✔️Ans - A series of processed in which
microorganisms breakdown biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen.
Anti-Degradation ✔️Ans - An EPA policy designed to prevent deterioration of
existing levels of good water quality.
Arid Area ✔️Ans - Any area receiving less than 10 inches of rainfall per year.
Armor ✔️Ans - Artificial surfacing of bed, banks, shore, or embankment to
resist erosion or scour.
Arroyo ✔️Ans - Waterway of an ephemeral stream deeply carved in rock or
ancient alluvium.
Artesian Waters ✔️Ans - Percolating waters confined below impermeable
formations with sufficient pressure to spring or well up to the surface.
,Assessed Value ✔️Ans - The dollar value assigned to a property for the
purposes of tax assessment.
Backfill ✔️Ans - Earth used to fill a trench or excavation.
Baffle ✔️Ans - A pier, vane sill, fence, wall or mound constructed in a basin or
in the bed of a stream to parry, deflect, check or redistribute the flow, or to
float on the surface to deflect or dampen cross currents or waves.
Bank ✔️Ans - The lateral boundary of a stream confining water flows. The
bank of the left side of a channel looking downstream is called the left bank.
Bank Protection ✔️Ans - Revetment, or other armor protecting a bank of a
stream from erosion, includes devices used to deflect the forces of erosion
away from the bank.
Base Flood ✔️Ans - The flood or tide having a 1 percent chance of being
exceeded in any given year (100-year flood). The "base flood" is commonly
used as the "standard flood: in Ferderal Flood Insurance studies (see
Regulatory Flood).
Base Floodplain ✔️Ans - The area subject to flooding by the base flood.
Base Flow ✔️Ans - The flow contributing to a creek by ground water. During
dry periods, base flow constitutes the majority of stream flow.
Basin ✔️Ans - (1) The surface area tributary to a stream or lake. (2) Space
above or below ground capable of retaining or detaining water or debris.
Bay ✔️Ans - An indentation of bank or shore, including erosional cuts and
slipouts, not necessarily large.
Beach ✔️Ans - The zone of sedimentary material that extends landward from
the low water line to the place where there is marked change in material or
form, or to the line of permanent vegetation (usually the effective limit of
storm waves). The seaward limit of a beach, unless otherwise specified, is the
mean low water line. A beach includes foreshore and backshore.
,Bed ✔️Ans - The earth below any body of water, limited laterally by bank or
shore.
Bed Load ✔️Ans - Sediment that moves by rolling, sliding, or skipping along
the bed and is essentially in contact with the stream bed.
Bedding ✔️Ans - The foundation under a drainage structure.
Beneficial Uses ✔️Ans - As referred to in the State Water Quality Standards,
beneficial uses are activities that range from recreational to agricultural uses,
depending on the source of the water.
Benthic ✔️Ans - Of or relating to or happening on the bottom under a body of
water.
Berm ✔️Ans - (1) A bench or terrace between two slopes. (2) A nearly
horizontal part of the beach or backshore formed at the high water line by
waves depositing material. Some beaches have no berms, other have one or
several.
Best Management Practice (BMP) ✔️Ans - (1) Ameasure that is implemented
to protect water quality and reduce the potential for pollution associated with
stormwater runoff. (2) Any program, technology, process, sizing criteria,
operating method, measure, or device that controls, prevents, removes, or
reduces pollution.
Bioaccumulation ✔️Ans - A general term for the accumulation of substances,
such as pesticides (DDT is an example), methylmercury, or other organic
chemicals in an organism or part of an organism. The accumulation process
involves the biological sequestering of substances that enter the organism
through respiration, food intake, epidermal (skin) contact with the substance,
and/or other means. The sequestering results in the organism having a higher
concentration of the substance than the concentration in the organism's
surrounding environment.
Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) ✔️Ans - Chemical procedure for
determining the uptake rate of dissolved oxygen by the biological organisms
in a body of water. It is not a precise quantitative test, although it is widely
used as an indication of the quality of water. BOD can be used as a gauge of the
, effectiveness of wastewater treatment plants. It is listed as a conventional
pollutant in the U.S. Clean Water Act.
Biological Monitoring and Biological Indicators ✔️Ans - Surveys of aquatic
biota in a waterbody where the organisms (plants, macro-invertebrates, and
fish) serve as indicators of the quality and characteristics of that waterbody.
Bioretention ✔️Ans - A structural BMP using landscape features such as
plants, soil andmulches to provide onsite treatment of stormwater runoff.
Block ✔️Ans - Precast prismatic unit for riprap structure.
Blue-green algae ✔️Ans - Algae that can cause problems in lakes because
some produce chemicals that are toxic to animals, including humans. They
often form thick floating mats of blue-green scum as they die.
Bluff ✔️Ans - A high, steep bank composed of erodible materials.
Boil ✔️Ans - Turbulent break in a water surface by upwelling.
Boom ✔️Ans - Floating log or similar element designed to dampen surface
waves or control the movement of drift.
Bore ✔️Ans - A transient solitary wave in a narrow or converging channel
advancing with a steep turbulent front; product of flash floods or in-coming
tides.
Boulder ✔️Ans - Largest rock transported by a stream or rolled in the surf;
arbitrarily heavier than 12 kg and larger than 200 mm.
Braided Stream ✔️Ans - A stream in which flow is divided at normal stage by
small islands. This type of stream has the aspect of a single large channel with
which there are subordinate channels.
Breaker ✔️Ans - A wave meeting a shore, reef, sandbar, or rock and
collapsing.
Breakwater ✔️Ans - A fixed or floating structure that protects a shore area,
harbor, anchorage, or basin by intercepting waves.
Absorption ✔️Ans - Absorption of particles of gas or liquid into a liquid or
solid material.
Adsorption ✔️Ans - The process by which a liquid or gas adsorbate is
adsorbed by an adsorbent, forming a film on the adsorbent's surface. (aka it
sticks to the surface).
Aerobic Digestion ✔️Ans - The breakdown of wastes by microorganisms in
the presence of dissolved oxygen.
Algae ✔️Ans - One-celled or multi-celled plamts that are either suspended in
water or attached to submerged rocks or other materials. Their abundance is
measured by the amount of chlorophyll a within a water sample.
Ambient Water Quality ✔️Ans - Water quality of a waterbody measured
immediately upstream (or outside) of the influence of a particular source of
pollutants or pollutant parameters during average flow conditions.
Aenaerobic Digestion ✔️Ans - A series of processed in which
microorganisms breakdown biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen.
Anti-Degradation ✔️Ans - An EPA policy designed to prevent deterioration of
existing levels of good water quality.
Arid Area ✔️Ans - Any area receiving less than 10 inches of rainfall per year.
Armor ✔️Ans - Artificial surfacing of bed, banks, shore, or embankment to
resist erosion or scour.
Arroyo ✔️Ans - Waterway of an ephemeral stream deeply carved in rock or
ancient alluvium.
Artesian Waters ✔️Ans - Percolating waters confined below impermeable
formations with sufficient pressure to spring or well up to the surface.
,Assessed Value ✔️Ans - The dollar value assigned to a property for the
purposes of tax assessment.
Backfill ✔️Ans - Earth used to fill a trench or excavation.
Baffle ✔️Ans - A pier, vane sill, fence, wall or mound constructed in a basin or
in the bed of a stream to parry, deflect, check or redistribute the flow, or to
float on the surface to deflect or dampen cross currents or waves.
Bank ✔️Ans - The lateral boundary of a stream confining water flows. The
bank of the left side of a channel looking downstream is called the left bank.
Bank Protection ✔️Ans - Revetment, or other armor protecting a bank of a
stream from erosion, includes devices used to deflect the forces of erosion
away from the bank.
Base Flood ✔️Ans - The flood or tide having a 1 percent chance of being
exceeded in any given year (100-year flood). The "base flood" is commonly
used as the "standard flood: in Ferderal Flood Insurance studies (see
Regulatory Flood).
Base Floodplain ✔️Ans - The area subject to flooding by the base flood.
Base Flow ✔️Ans - The flow contributing to a creek by ground water. During
dry periods, base flow constitutes the majority of stream flow.
Basin ✔️Ans - (1) The surface area tributary to a stream or lake. (2) Space
above or below ground capable of retaining or detaining water or debris.
Bay ✔️Ans - An indentation of bank or shore, including erosional cuts and
slipouts, not necessarily large.
Beach ✔️Ans - The zone of sedimentary material that extends landward from
the low water line to the place where there is marked change in material or
form, or to the line of permanent vegetation (usually the effective limit of
storm waves). The seaward limit of a beach, unless otherwise specified, is the
mean low water line. A beach includes foreshore and backshore.
,Bed ✔️Ans - The earth below any body of water, limited laterally by bank or
shore.
Bed Load ✔️Ans - Sediment that moves by rolling, sliding, or skipping along
the bed and is essentially in contact with the stream bed.
Bedding ✔️Ans - The foundation under a drainage structure.
Beneficial Uses ✔️Ans - As referred to in the State Water Quality Standards,
beneficial uses are activities that range from recreational to agricultural uses,
depending on the source of the water.
Benthic ✔️Ans - Of or relating to or happening on the bottom under a body of
water.
Berm ✔️Ans - (1) A bench or terrace between two slopes. (2) A nearly
horizontal part of the beach or backshore formed at the high water line by
waves depositing material. Some beaches have no berms, other have one or
several.
Best Management Practice (BMP) ✔️Ans - (1) Ameasure that is implemented
to protect water quality and reduce the potential for pollution associated with
stormwater runoff. (2) Any program, technology, process, sizing criteria,
operating method, measure, or device that controls, prevents, removes, or
reduces pollution.
Bioaccumulation ✔️Ans - A general term for the accumulation of substances,
such as pesticides (DDT is an example), methylmercury, or other organic
chemicals in an organism or part of an organism. The accumulation process
involves the biological sequestering of substances that enter the organism
through respiration, food intake, epidermal (skin) contact with the substance,
and/or other means. The sequestering results in the organism having a higher
concentration of the substance than the concentration in the organism's
surrounding environment.
Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) ✔️Ans - Chemical procedure for
determining the uptake rate of dissolved oxygen by the biological organisms
in a body of water. It is not a precise quantitative test, although it is widely
used as an indication of the quality of water. BOD can be used as a gauge of the
, effectiveness of wastewater treatment plants. It is listed as a conventional
pollutant in the U.S. Clean Water Act.
Biological Monitoring and Biological Indicators ✔️Ans - Surveys of aquatic
biota in a waterbody where the organisms (plants, macro-invertebrates, and
fish) serve as indicators of the quality and characteristics of that waterbody.
Bioretention ✔️Ans - A structural BMP using landscape features such as
plants, soil andmulches to provide onsite treatment of stormwater runoff.
Block ✔️Ans - Precast prismatic unit for riprap structure.
Blue-green algae ✔️Ans - Algae that can cause problems in lakes because
some produce chemicals that are toxic to animals, including humans. They
often form thick floating mats of blue-green scum as they die.
Bluff ✔️Ans - A high, steep bank composed of erodible materials.
Boil ✔️Ans - Turbulent break in a water surface by upwelling.
Boom ✔️Ans - Floating log or similar element designed to dampen surface
waves or control the movement of drift.
Bore ✔️Ans - A transient solitary wave in a narrow or converging channel
advancing with a steep turbulent front; product of flash floods or in-coming
tides.
Boulder ✔️Ans - Largest rock transported by a stream or rolled in the surf;
arbitrarily heavier than 12 kg and larger than 200 mm.
Braided Stream ✔️Ans - A stream in which flow is divided at normal stage by
small islands. This type of stream has the aspect of a single large channel with
which there are subordinate channels.
Breaker ✔️Ans - A wave meeting a shore, reef, sandbar, or rock and
collapsing.
Breakwater ✔️Ans - A fixed or floating structure that protects a shore area,
harbor, anchorage, or basin by intercepting waves.
