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Greenhouse Gas (GHG): Any gas that absorbs infrared radiation in the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases include water vapor, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), ozone (O3 ), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6).

Green cleaning: Refers to the use of cleaning methods and products with environmentally friendly ingredients designed to preserve human health and environmental quality. Green cleaning techniques and products avoid the use of chemically reactive and toxic products which contain various toxic chemicals.

Gray Water: Wastewater generated from kitchen sinks, washing machines, wash-hand basins, showers and baths, which can be recycled for landscape irrigation and constructed wetlands

Granular Activated Carbon (GAC): An effective absorbent primarily due to its extensive porosity and very large available surface area. By definition, granular activated carbon (as opposed to powdered activated carbon) is composed of particles with sizes greater than 0.8 mm, about the size of coarse sand. Activated carbon is manufactured from a variety of raw materials, including wood, coal, and coconut shells, making it plentiful, relatively inexpensive, and versatile.

Good Neighbor Environmental Board (GNEB): Independent federal advisory committee with mission to advise U.S. government on good neighbor practices along the border with Mexico. Its recommendations are focused on environmental infrastructure needs within the U.S. states contiguous to Mexico.

Global Positioning System (GPS): A space-based satellite navigation system that provides location and time information in all weather conditions, anywhere on or near the Earth where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites.

Geologic Formation: A body of rock strata (layers) that consists of a certain type or combination of types of rock with the same characteristics such as grain size, or mineral content, or mode of deposition. A formation is usually visually distinguishable from the rock above and below.

Geographical Information System (GIS): A system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of spatial or geographical data.

Generator: Any person who produces hazardous waste or causes a hazardous waste to become subject to regulation.

Full-Body Contact (FBC): The use of a surface water for swimming or other recreational activity that causes the human body to come into direct contact with the water to the point of complete submergence. The activity is such that ingestion of the water is likely and sensitive body organs, such as the eyes, ears, or nose, may be exposed to direct contact with the water.

Fugitive Emissions: Emissions not caught by a capture system.

Friable Asbestos Material (FAM): Any material that is more than one percent asbestos and that can be crumbled or reduced to powder by hand pressure.

Fractures: Cracks, faults, or breaks that occur in rock material.

Floodwater: The water that overflows because of a flood.

Fly Ash: Non-combustible residual particles expelled by flue gas..

Floodplain: The flat or nearly flat land along a river or stream or in a tidal area that is covered by water during a flood.

Five-Year Review: A periodic review of a Superfund/WQARF site conducted after a response action has been initiated; the purpose of a five-year review is to evaluate whether the response action remains protective of public health and the environment.

Fissure: A narrow crack or cleft, as in a rock face.

Fissure: A narrow crack or cleft, as in a rock face.

Fish Consumption: The use of a surface water by humans for harvesting aquatic organisms for consumption. Harvestable aquatic organisms include fish, clams, turtles, crayfish, and frogs

Filtration: A treatment process, under the control of qualified operators, for removing solid (particulate) matter from water by means of porous media such as sand or a man-made filter. Filtration also is often used to remove particles that contain pathogens.

Ferrous Metals: Magnetic metals derived from iron or steel. The products made from ferrous metals include appliances, furniture, containers, and packaging like steel drums and barrels. Recycled products include processing tin/steel cans, strapping, and metals from appliances into new products.

Federal Register (FR) : Official journal of the federal government that contains government agency rules, proposed rules and public notices.

Federal Implementation Plan: A federally implemented plan to achieve attainment of air quality standards, used when a state is unable to develop an adequate plan.

Feasibility Study (FS): A process to identify a reference remedy and alternative remedies that appear to be capable of achieving the remedial objectives for the site. It is often done as part of a two-phase investigation in conjunction with a remedial investigation (RI/FS).

Facility: Usually includes a place, site, or area where a hazardous substance has been deposited, stored, disposed of, placed, or otherwise came to be located.

Extraction Well: A well specifically designed to withdraw groundwater or soil vapor for treatment.

Extinction (of light): The loss of light due to scattering and absorption as it passes through the atmosphere.

Exposure Pathway: The route of contaminants from the source of contamination to potential contact with a medium (air, soil, surface water, or groundwater) that represents a potential threat to human health or the environment. Determining whether exposure pathways exist is an essential step in conducting a risk assessment.

Explanation of Significant Differences (ESD): A document issued by the EPA after adoption of the record of decision which explains differences in the remedial action that significantly change but do not fundamentally alter the remedy selected in the ROD with respect to scope, performance or cost.

Exceedance (of pollution standard): Violation of the pollutant levels permitted by environmental protection standards.

Evaporation Ponds: Areas where sewage sludge is dumped and dried.

Ephemeral Water: A surface water that has a channel that is at all times above the water table and flows only in direct response to precipitation.

Environmental Sustainability: Maintenance of ecosystem components and functions for future generations.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): Agency of the federal government created in 1970 for the purpose of protecting human health and the environment by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress.

Environmental Management System (EMS): Management of an organization’s environmental programs in a comprehensive, systematic, planned and documented manner and maintaining policy for environmental protection.

Environmental Justice (EJ): The fair treatment of people of all races, cultures, incomes, and educational levels with respect to the development and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.

Environmental Impact Statement (EIS): A document required of federal agencies by the National Environmental Policy Act for major projects or legislative proposals significantly affecting the environment. A tool for decision making, it describes the positive and negative effects of the undertaking and cites alternative actions.

Environmental Council of the States (ECOS): National non-profit, non-partisan association of state and territorial environmental agency leaders. The purpose of ECOS is to improve the capability of state environmental agencies and their leaders to protect and improve human health and the environment.

Environmental Assessment (EA): An environmental analysis prepared pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act to determine whether a federal action would significantly affect the environment and thus require a more detailed environmental impact statement.

Emission: Pollution discharged into the atmosphere from smokestacks, other vents, and surface areas of commercial or industrial facilities; from residential chimneys; and from motor vehicle, locomotive, or aircraft exhausts.

Emergency Response: A remedial action taken in response to a situation that might cause serious harm to people or the environment if not addressed immediately. An example is removal of soil contaminated by lead in a residential area.

Electronic Waste (e-waste): Electronic products nearing the end of their useful life. Computers, televisions, VCRs, stereos, copiers, and fax machines are common electronic products. Many of these products can be reused, refurbished, or recycled.

Electric arc shaft furnace: A cylindrical furnace lined with material capable of enduring high temperatures that produces molten steel by heating iron and steel scrap and other materials that are used as charge materials, using discharges of electricity from carbon-based conductors and direct-current electrical energy. This energy-efficient technology recovers the heat from the furnace off-gas by exhausting it through a shaft where the steel scrap is held prior to charging.

Effluent-Dependent Water (EDW): A surface water that consists of a point source discharge of wastewater. Without the point source discharge of wastewater, it would be an ephemeral water.

Effluent: Treated or untreated wastewater that flows out of a treatment plant, sewer, or industrial outfall. Generally refers to wastes discharged into surface waters.

Ecosystem: The interacting system of a biological community and its non-living environmental surroundings.

Early Response Action (ERA): Refers to a remedial action performed prior to the final remedy, and often prior to the remedial investigation. An ERA addresses current risks to public health, welfare, and the environment; protects or provides a supply of water; addresses sources of contamination; or controls or contains contamination where such actions are expected to reduce the scope or cost of the remedy needed at the site. It is also referred to as an interim remedial action.

Dust Control Action Forecast: An Arizona Department of Environmental Quality forecast which assesses the risk of exceeding the PM-10 federal health standard in Maricopa and Pinal counties.

Drywell: A bored, drilled, or driven shaft or hole, the depth of which is greater than its width, and which disposes of unwanted water, most commonly stormwater runoff, by dissipating it into the ground, where it infiltrates to groundwater.

Dross: A mass of solid impurities that is considered a waste product from molten metal.

Drinking Water: Water safe enough to be consumed by humans or used with low risk of immediate or long-term harm. Also known as potable water.

Drawdown: The vertical distance the groundwater level is lowered due to the removal of water from an aquifer.

Drain Water: Water that enters a drain or channel.

Downgradient: The direction that groundwater flows, similar to “downstream” for rivers. The direction of groundwater flow does not necessarily reflect the topography of the surface.

Domestic Water Source (DWS): The use of a surface water as a source of potable water.

Diurnal Winds: Local winds recurring on a daily basis along the axis of a valley, blowing upslope by day and downslope by night. They occur mostly in calm, clear weather.

Dissolved Oxygen (DO): The oxygen freely available in water, vital to fish and other aquatic life and for the prevention of odors. DO levels are considered a most important indicator of a water body’s ability to support desirable aquatic life.

Dispersion: Dilution over time of a pollutant concentration from its point source due to spreading out of the pollutant.

Disinfectant: A chemical or physical process that kills pathogenic organisms in water, air, or on surfaces. Chlorine is often used to disinfect effluent, water supplies, wells, and swimming pools.

Digester: In wastewater treatment, a closed tank; in solid-waste conversion, a unit in which bacterial action is induced and accelerated to break down organic matter and establish carbon to nitrogen ratio.

Dichloroethylene (DCE): Used to make certain plastics, packaging materials, and flame retardant coatings. Typically, it is a degradation product of other chlorinated solvents.

Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane (DDT): The first chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticide chemical name. It has a half-life of 15 years and can collect in fatty tissues of certain animals. EPA banned registration and interstate sale of DDT for virtually all but emergency uses in 1972.

Desalinization: Removal of salt from saline water to provide fresh water (also desalination).

Delegation Agreement (DA): An agreement between ADEQ and a political subdivision that authorizes the political subdivision to exercise functions , powers or duties conferred on the delegating agency by a provision of law.

Declaration of Environmental Use Restriction (DEUR): A restrictive covenant that runs with and burdens the land and requires maintenance of any institutional or engineering control. It must be approved and signed by ADEQ before it may be recorded with the county recorder’s office.

Cubic Feet Per Second (CFS): The flow rate or discharge equal to one cubic foot of water per second or about 7.5 gallons per second commonly used to indicate the rate of flow of a creek, river or flood, i.e., the volume of water that passes a given point in a given amount of time.

Crumb Rubber: Ground rubber fragments the size of sand or silt used in rubber or plastic products, or processed further into reclaimed rubber or asphalt products.

Criteria Flow Condition: The lowest flow over seven consecutive days that has a probability of occurring once in 10 years.

Criteria Air Pollutant (CAP): The 1970 amendments to the Clean Air Act required EPA to set National Ambient Air Quality Standards for pollutants hazardous to human health — ozone, carbon monoxide, total suspended particulates, sulfur dioxide, lead and nitrogen oxide. The term “criteria pollutants” derives from the requirement that EPA must describe the characteristics and potential health and welfare effects of these pollutants. It is on the basis of these criteria that standards are set or revised

Criteria (for Water): Elements of water quality standards that are expressed as pollutant concentrations, levels, or narrative statements representing water quality that supports a designated use.

Cost Recovery: A legal process where responsible parties can be required to pay back the state for money it spends on any investigative and/or cleanup actions.

Convection: Vertical transport of heat and moisture that can lead to an increase in cloud cover and precipitation. Commonly results in thunderstorm activity during the North American Monsoon.

Contamination: Any hazardous or regulated substance released into the environment.

Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CEC): Those chemicals in detergents, fragrances, prescription and nonprescription drugs, disinfectants, and pesticides that recently have been shown to occur widely in water resources and identified as being a potential environmental or public health risk, although adequate data do not yet exist to determine their risk.

Contaminant Level: A contaminant level is a relative measure of how much of a contaminant is present. Contaminant levels are expressed in concentrations such as parts per million (ppm), parts per billion (ppb), milligrams per liter (mg/l), or micrograms per liter (μg/l).