- Ash
- The residual material resulting from incinerating sludge, in which all volatile organic compounds are burned off.
- Asset management
- A set of systematic and coordinated activities through which an organization optimally manages its assets, their associated performance, and risks and expenditures over their life cycle for the purpose of achieving its organizational strategic plan.
- Brownfield
- As defined by the EPA, a brownfield is “real property, the expansion, development, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence, or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.”
- Capital
- Borrowed money for infrastructure improvement projects.
- Combined sewer overflow (CSO)
- A structure designed to overflow when a combined sewer is filled with sewage and stormwater beyond its volume and/or pressure capacity, usually during wet weather.
- Consent Decree
- A legal agreement between a state and/or federal EPA that mandates a utility to make infrastructure improvements to improve environmental conditions.
- Diversity and inclusion
- The practice of valuing the talents of all people, regardless of age, gender, race, disabilities, or other criteria.
- Ecosystem
- A defined, biological community of animals, plants, fungi, and bacteria with unique and interconnected relationships to the physical and chemical environment in a given geographic area.
- Effluent
- The treated output flow of a wastewater treatment plant.
- Environmental footprint
- The total environmental impact resulting from an entity’s use of energy, materials, and water and the resulting generation of wastes and byproducts. A subset of this is the carbon footprint, which includes the total greenhouse gas emissions resulting from an entity’s activities.
- Gigajoule (GJ)
- A metric unit of energy, equal to 277.8 kilowatt-hours.
- Grit and screenings
- The heavy and typically inorganic solids (such as metals, plastics, and sand) that are filtered out of wastewater before the flow enters the complex biological and chemical treatment processes of a wastewater treatment plant.
- Incineration
- The process of heating waste materials in order to burn off volatile organic compounds and water while reducing the volume of the waste.
- Influent
- The untreated wastewater or raw sewage coming into a wastewater treatment plant.
- Package treatment plant
- A self-contained treatment plant designed for small flows; typically installed in remote locations. Package treatment plants use aerobic (with oxygen) digestion to treat sewage, in combination with mechanical aeration and settling before releasing treated water.
- Pump station
- A facility within the sewer collection system that is designed to pump sewage toward a wastewater treatment plant.
- Sanitary sewer overflow (SSO)
- A structure designed to overflow when a sanitary sewer is filled beyond its volume or pressure capacity, usually during wet weather.
- Sludge, sludge cake
- Sludge is the solid waste material that settles out in the wastewater treatment process, sometimes called biosolids. Sludge cake is sludge after it has been dewatered and compressed.
- Small business enterprise (SBE)
- In Hamilton County, a small business must be a business concern that is independently owned and operated, and meets the detailed definitions or size standards of the U.S. Small Business Administration, as provided at www.sba.gov/size.
- Source control
- The practice of reducing stormwater runoff as close to the point where rainfall occurs (“the source”), through storage, infiltration, or diversion techniques.
- Stakeholder
- The range of people and organizations with direct and indirect vested interests in MSD’s activities. Primary stakeholders include customers (the ratepayers), employees, bond investors, community partners, neighbors, local government partners, regulators, and advocacy groups.
- Volatile organic compound (VOC)
- VOCs are generally hydrocarbons that evaporate easily, have low- to-medium water solubility, and low molecular weights (see http://toxics.usgs.gov/definitions/vocs.html). VOCs include fuels, solvents, hydraulic fluid, and paint thinners. They are contaminants of concern in drinking water supplies because many are toxic and are known or suspected human carcinogens.
- Wet weather
- A general term describing storms that generate sufficient stormwater runoff to cause flooding and overflow events in combined sewers and sanitary sewers.
Glossary
