Respiration |
(Environmental Engineering) Energy production in which oxygen is the terminal electron acceptor, i.e. oxidation to produce energy where oxygen is the oxidizing agent. See fermentation. |
Reversible reaction |
(Environmental Engineering) A reaction in which the reactant(s) proceed to product(s), but the products react at an appreciable rate to reform reactant(s). |
Secondary treatment |
(Environmental Engineering) In wastewater treatment, the conversion of the suspended, colloidal and dissolved organics remaining after primary treatment into a microbial mass with is then removed in a second sedimentation process. Secondary treatment included both the biological process and the associated sedimentation process. |
Site remediation |
(Environmental Engineering) The process of cleaning up a hazardous waste disposal site that has either been abandoned or that those responsible either refuse to cleanup or are financially unable to cleanup. |
Siting |
(Environmental Engineering) Obtaining government (federal, state, and local) permission to construct an environmental processing, treatment, or disposal facility at a given site. |
Source reduction |
(Environmental Engineering) The elimination or reduction of the waste at the source by modification of the actual process which produces the waste. |
Stratosphere |
(Environmental Engineering) The atmosphere from approximately 12 km to 70 km. The temperature of the atmosphere increases in this region.Strong acid |
Thermocline |
(Environmental Engineering) The depth at which an inflection point occurs in a lake temperature profile. |
Toxicity |
(Environmental Engineering) A U.S. EPA hazardous waste characteristic defined with a rigorous test procedure, the TCLP (for Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure). In the procedure, a waste is extracted for 24 hours with an acetic acid solution. The acid extract is then analyzed for the presence of any of the contaminants listed in the procedure. |
Trickling filter |
(Environmental Engineering) An attached growth biological process in which the microbial film is attached to non-moving rock or plastic media. |