Fast Facts

• Earth is 2/3 water, but all the fresh water only represents one hundredth of one percent.

• You use about 12,000 gallons of water every year.

• One gallon of motor oil can contaminate up to 2 million gallons of water.

• Nearly 1.5 billion people lack safe drinking water and at least 5 million deaths per year can be attributed to waterborne diseases.

• With over 70 percent of the planet covered by oceans, people have long acted as if these very bodies of water could serve as a limitless dumping ground for wastes.

• Beaches around the world are closed regularly, often because of high amounts of bacteria from sewage disposal, and marine wildlife is beginning to suffer.

• Ninety-five percent of all fresh water on earth is ground water. Ground water is found in natural rock formations. These formations, called aquifers, are a vital natural resource with many uses.

• Different items take different lengths of time to degrade in water:

Cardboard – Takes 2 weeks to degrade.

Newspaper – Takes 6 weeks to degrade.

Photodegradable packaging – Takes 6 weeks to degrade.

Foam – Takes 50 years to degrade.

Styrofoam – Takes 80 years to degrade.

Aluminium – Takes 200 years to degrade.

Plastic packaging – Takes 400 years to degrade.

Glass – It takes so long to degrade that we don’t know the exact time.

Important Terms

Aquifers – natural rock formations, which contain ground water.

Base flow – The portion of stream flow that is not runoff and results from seepage of water from the ground into a channel slowly over time. The primary source of running water in a stream during dry weather.

Best Management Practice (BMP), nonstructural – Strategies implemented to control stormwater runoff that focus on pollution prevention such as alternative site design, zoning and ordinances, education, and good housekeeping measures.

Best Management Practice (BMP), structural - Engineered devices implemented to control, treat, or prevent stormwater runoff pollution.

Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) – The amount of oxygen used by microorganisms in the breakdown or decay of organic matter in a waterbody.

Bioengineering – Restoration and stabilization techniques that use plants, often native species, to mimic natural functions and benefits.

Biofiltration – The use of vegetation (usually grasses or wetland plants) to filter and treat stormwater runoff as it is conveyed through an open channel or swale.

Biological diversity – The concept of multiple species of organisms living together in balance with their environment and each other.

Biological monitoring and biological indicators – 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 – The use of vegetation in retention areas designed to allow infiltration of runoff into the ground. The plants provide additional pollutant removal and filtering functions while infiltration allows the temperature of the runoff to be cooled.

Brownfields – Abandoned or underutilized properties where development is complicated by real or perceived contamination.

Buffer zone – A designated transitional area around a stream, lake, or wetland left in a natural, usually vegetated state so as to protect the waterbody from runoff pollution. Development is often restricted or prohibited in a buffer zone.

Chemical water quality – The quality of a waterbody determined using chemical rather than physical or biological parameters and methods.

Combined sewer overflow (CSO) – During rainfall events, the volume of stormwater entering a combined sewer system often is far greater than the capacity of the interceptor (large collector pipe) and sewage treatment plant and, as a result, the untreated sewage and stormwater mixture empties directly into receiving waters through designated overflow points.

Combined sewer system – A sewer system that conveys stormwater runoff along with sanitary sewage and industrial waste.

Detention – The storage and slow release of stormwater following a precipitation event by means of an excavated pond, enclosed depression, or tank. Detention is used for both pollutant removal, stormwater storage, and peak flow reduction. Both wet and dry detention methods can be applied.

Eutrophication - The process of slowly filling in a water body with sediments and organic matter.

Estuary – A semi-enclosed coastal waterbody such as a bay, mouth of a river, salt marsh, or lagoon, where freshwater and saltwater mix. These waters support a rich and diverse ecology.

Evapotranspiration – The loss of water to the atmosphere through the combined processes of evaporation and transpiration, the process by which plants release water they have absorbed into the atmosphere.

Filter Strip – Grassed strips situated along roads or parking areas that remove pollutants from runoff as it passes through, allowing some infiltration, and reductions of velocity.

Flashy stream – A stream or river that is characterized by dramatic fluctuations in flow, in which sharply higher flows in wet weather can be followed by very low flows in dry weather.

Floatables – Materials found in runoff that are buoyant, such as polystyrene, plastic, some organic material, or cigarette butts.

Floodplain – Can be either a natural feature or statistically derived area adjacent to a stream or river where water from the stream or river overflows its banks at some frequency during extreme storm events.

Geographic Information System (GIS) – A database of digital information and data on land-use, land cover, ecology, and other geographic attributes that can be overlaid, statistically analyzed, mathematically manipulated, and graphically displayed using maps, charts, and graphs.

Groundwater – Water that flows below the ground surface through saturated soil, glacial deposits, or rock.

Hydrology – The science addressing the properties, distribution, and circulation of water across the landscape, through the ground, and in the atmosphere.

Impervious surface – A surface that cannot be penetrated by water such as pavement, rock, or a rooftop and thereby prevents infiltration and generates runoff.

Imperviousness – The percentage of impervious cover within a defined area.

Infiltration – The process or rate at which water percolates from the land surface into the ground. Infiltration is also a general category of BMP designed to collect runoff and allow it to flow through the ground for treatment.

National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) – A provision of the Clean Water Act that prohibits discharge of pollutants into waters of the United States unless a special permit is issued by the EPA, a state, or (where delegated) a tribal government or and Indian reservation.

Natural buffer – A variable width area maintained with natural vegetation between a pollutant source and a waterbody that provides natural filtration and other forms of protection.

Non point source - delivers pollutants indirectly through environmental changes. One way in, which this occurs, is through run-off.

Outfall – The point of discharge from a river, pipe, drain, etc. to a receiving body of water.

Overburden – Material overlying a deposit of useful geologic materials or bedrock.

Pathogens - or disease producing organism.

Peak discharge – The greatest volume of stream flow occurring during a storm event.

Performance standard – An established amount or limit of a specified pollutant that can be discharged from a land-use activity or BMP.

Point source - occurs when harmful substances are emitted directly into a body of water. One way in which this occurs, is when someone throws a coke can into a body of water.

Pollution - to make foul or unclean; dirty.

Polluted runoff – Rainwater or snowmelt that picks up pollutants and sediments as it runs off roads, highways, parking lots, lawns, agricultural lands, logging areas, mining sites, septic systems, and other land-use activities that can generate pollutants.

Retrofit – The creation or modification of a stormwater management practice, usually in a developed area, that improves or combines treatment with existing stormwater infrastructure.

Runoff – Water from rainfall, snowmelt, or otherwise discharged that flows across the ground surface instead of infiltrating the ground.

Sanitary sewer system – Underground pipes that carry only domestic or industrial wastewater to a sewage treatment plant or receiving water.

Sediments - minerals or organic matter deposited by water, air, or ice...matter which settles to the bottom a liquid.

Sedimentation – A solid-liquid separation process utilizing gravitational settling to remove soil or rock particles from the water column.

Siltation – A solid-liquid separation process utilizing gravitational settling to remove fine-grained soil or rock particles from the water column.

SSO (separate sewer overflow) – Wastewater entering sanitary sewers may be so great, because of blockage, a lack of capacity, inflow and infiltration, or other reasons, that the collection system or sewage treatment plant cannot handle the increased flow. As a result, untreated sewage empties directly into receiving waters, often from manholes or up through sewer connections.

Storm sewer system – A system of pipes and channels that carry stormwater runoff from the surfaces of building, paved surfaces, and the land to discharge areas.

Stormwater – Water derived from a storm event or conveyed through a storm sewer system.

Stormwater utility – A utility established to generate a dedicated source of funding for stormwater pollution prevention activities where users pay a fee based on land-use and contribution of runoff to the stormwater system.

Surface water – Water that flows across the land surface, in channels, or is contained in depressions on the land surface (e.g. runoff, ponds, lakes, rivers, and streams).

Swale – A natural or human-made open depression or wide, shallow ditch that intermittently contains or conveys runoff. Can be used as a BMP to detain and filter runoff.

Urban (metropolitan) runoff – Runoff derived from urban or suburban land-uses that is distinguished from agricultural or industrial runoff sources.

Water (hydrologic) cycle – The flow and distribution of water from the sky, to the Earth's surface, through various routes on or in the Earth, and back to the atmosphere. The main components are precipitation, infiltration, surface runoff, evapotranspiration, channel and depression storage, and groundwater.

Watershed – The land area, or catchment, that contributes water to a specific waterbody. All the rain or snow that falls within this area flows to the waterbodies as surface runoff, in tributary streams, or as groundwater.

Acronyms

BMP - Best Management Practice

BOD - Biochemical Oxygen Demand

CSO - Combined Sewer Overflow

EPA - United States Environmental Protection Agency

ESC - Erosion and Sediment Control

GIS - Geographic Information System

MS4 - Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System

NAFSMA - National Association of Flood and Stormwater Management Agencies

NPDES - National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System

NRDC - Natural Resources Defense Council

SSO - Separate Sewer Overflow