Organic matter in a state of advanced decay, after passing through the stages of COMPOST and PEAT and before becoming lignite (COAL). It is composed of a heterogenous mixture of compounds including phenolic radicals and acids that polymerize and are not easily separated nor analyzed. (E.A. Ghabbour & G. Davies, eds. Humic Substances, 2001).
Garbage, refuse, or sludge, or other discarded materials from a wastewater treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, and air pollution control facility that include solid, semi-solid, or contained material. It does not include materials dissolved in domestic sewage, irrigation return flows, or industrial discharges.
The flow of water in enviromental bodies of water such as rivers, oceans, water supplies, aquariums, etc. It includes currents, tides, and waves.
The unconsolidated mineral or organic matter on the surface of the earth that serves as a natural medium for the growth of land plants.
Substances which pollute the soil. Use for soil pollutants in general or for which there is no specific heading.
The adhesion of gases, liquids, or dissolved solids onto a surface. It includes adsorptive phenomena of bacteria and viruses onto surfaces as well. ABSORPTION into the substance may follow but not necessarily.
Means or process of supplying water (as for a community) usually including reservoirs, tunnels, and pipelines and often the watershed from which the water is ultimately drawn. (Webster, 3d ed)
Water containing no significant amounts of salts, such as water from RIVERS and LAKES.
A mass of organic or inorganic solid fragmented material, or the solid fragment itself, that comes from the weathering of rock and is carried by, suspended in, or dropped by air, water, or ice. It refers also to a mass that is accumulated by any other natural agent and that forms in layers on the earth's surface, such as sand, gravel, silt, mud, fill, or loess. (McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 4th ed, p1689)