Term
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Definition
| “the water occupying the spaces between sediment particles ... Contaminants in the interstitial (pore - “empty space”) water and in the solid phase are expected to be at thermodynamic equilibrium. This makes interstitial waters useful for assessing contaminant levels and associated toxicity." - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2001 |
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Term
| How can porewater become polluted? |
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Definition
| Once the storage capacity of a certain soil type has been reached, contaminants will be released which can be transferred to and carried by pore water.(not positive but I believe this is correct). |
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Term
| What are priority pollutants? |
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Definition
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The Priority Pollutants are a set of chemical pollutants EPA regulates, and for which EPA has published analytical test methods.
- The Priority Pollutant list makes the list of toxic pollutants more usable, in a practical way, for the purposes assigned to EPA by the Clean Water Act. For example, the Priority Pollutant list is more practical for testing and for regulation in that chemicals are described by their individual chemical names. The list of toxic pollutants, in contrast, contains open-ended groups of pollutants, such as "chlorinated benzenes." That group contains hundreds of compounds; there is no test for the group as a whole, nor is it practical to regulate or test for all of these compounds
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Term
| How do priority pollutants become termed as ‘priority’? |
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Definition
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EPA includes all pollutants specifically named on the list of toxic pollutants;
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There has to be a chemical standard available for the pollutant, so that testing for the pollutant can be performed;
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The pollutant has to have been reported as found in water with a frequency of occurrence of at least 2.5%, and
- The pollutant has to have been produced in significant quantities, as reported in Stanford Research Institute's 1976 Directory of Chemical Producers, USA.
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