Glossary of Terms
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All Appropriate Inquiry
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Refers to the requirements for assessing the environmental conditions of a property prior to its acquisition.
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ASTM INTERNATIONAL (ASTM)
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An organization that establishes standards for industrial and other services, including methods of testing and sampling of hazardous waste and contaminated media.
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Applicable or Relevant and Appropriate Requirement (ARAR)
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As defined under CERCLA, ARARs are cleanup standards, standards of control, and other substantive environmental protection requirements, criteria, or limits set forth under federal or state law that specifically address problems or situations present at a CERCLA site. ARARs are major considerations in setting cleanup goals, selecting a remedy, and determining how to implement that remedy at a CERCLA site. ARARs must be attained at all CERCLA sites unless a waiver is obtained. ARARs are not national cleanup standards for the Superfund program.
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Automobile
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Related terms: car, tire, automotive, waste oil, grease, oil, petroleum, petroleum hydrocarbons, TPH, total petroleum hydrocarbons, diesel, unleaded, gasoline, fuel, solvents, VOCs, volatile organic compounds, carbon dichloride, PERC, Perchloroethylene, tetrachloroethene, Tetrachloroethylene, TCE trichloroethene, Trichloroethylene, BTEX, Benzene, Ethylbenzene, Ethyl Benzene, Toluene, Xylene, MTBE, methyl t-butyl ether.
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Battery
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Related terms: batteries: heavy metals, lead, nickel, cadmium, copper, chromium, zinc, EDTA, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, lithium, sulfur, bromium, battery acid, iron.
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Brownfields
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Real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.
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Brownfields Program
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative is organized to help communities revitalize brownfields properties (both environmentally and economically), mitigate potential health risks, and restore economic vitality to areas where brownfields exist. It is designed to empower States, communities, and other stakeholders in economic redevelopment to work together in a timely manner to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. Efforts under the Brownfields Initiative are grouped into four broad and overlapping categories: 1) providing grants for brownfields pilot projects; 2) clarifying liability and cleanup issues; 3) building partnerships and outreach among federal agencies, states, tribes, municipalities, and communities; and 4) fostering local job development and training initiatives.
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Charrette
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An intensive planning session in which citizens, designers and others collaborate on a vision for development. It provides a forum for ideas and offers the unique advantage of giving immediate feedback to the designers. More importantly, it allows everyone who participates to be a mutal author of the plan. Derived from the French word for 'little cart.' In Paris during the 19th century, professors at the Ecole des Beaux Arts circulated with little carts to collect final drawings from their students. Students would jump on the 'charrette' to put finishing touches on their presentation minutes before the deadline.
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Cleanup
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Cleanup is the term used for actions taken to deal with a release or threat of release of a hazardous substance that could affect humans and or the environment. The term sometimes is used interchangeably with the terms remedial action, removal action, response action, or corrective action.
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Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)
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Authorizes the federal government to create a special trust fund (the Superfund) to be used for the assessment and cleanup of spills and other releases of hazardous substances, as well as abandoned or uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. It establishes the requirements and procedures for the cleanup of sites that have been contaminated by releases of hazardous substances, and requires that a deed for federally owned property being transferred outside the government contain a covenant that all remedial action necessary to protect human health and the environment has been taken, and that the U.S. shall conduct any additional remedial action necessary after transfer.
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Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Information System (CERCLIS)
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A database that serves as the official federal inventory of CERCLA hazardous waste sites, and includes information about the sites, planned and actual site activity, and financial information.
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Dry Cleaner
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Related terms: Chlorinated solvents, dry cleaning solvents, volatile organic compounds, VOCs. PCE, 1,1,2,2-Tetrachloroethylene, Tetrochloroethane, carbon dichloride, PERC, Perchloroethylene, tetrachloroethene, Tetrachloroethylene, TCE, trichloroethylene.
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Dynamic Work Plan
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A dynamic work plan is a work plan that allows project teams to make decisions in the field about how site activities will progress. Dynamic work plans provide the strategy for the way in which dynamic field activities will take place. As such, they document a flexible, adaptive sampling and analytical strategy. Dynamic work plans are supported by the rapid turnaround of data collected, analyzed, and interpreted in the field.
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Ecosystem
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Described in its simplest terms, an ecosystem is an interconnected community of living things (including humans), and the physical environment (non-living substances) within which they interact.
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Equity Participation
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Equity participation is a loan that includes conditions under which the lender shares in the increase in equity of the business or development.
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Enterprise Zone
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A targeted area that has been designated as blighted or economically depressed by a governmental entity in an effort to stimulate economic activity through tax reduction, changes in zoning restrictions, and other governmental regulations on private enterprise. Implemented through state legislation, these economic incentives for investment and/or job creation are expected to stimulate market forces to respond in the designated areas.
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Entitlement Community
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A city or urban area with a population of 50,000 or more which receives Community Development Block Grant funds directly from HUD
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Environmental justice
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Established by Executive Order No. 12898, environmental justice asserts the fair treatment of people in the development of environmental laws, regulations, and policies; irrespective of race, culture or socioeconomic status.
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Environmental Risk
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Environmental risk is the chance that human health or the environment will suffer harm as the result of the presence of environmental hazards.
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Environmental Site Assessment
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An environmental site assessment is the process that determines whether contamination is present at a site.
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Exposure Pathway
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An exposure pathway is 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 baseline risk assessment.
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EZ/EC Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Community
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A geographic area that has been targeted to receive special federal treatment and incentives in an effort to spur private investment and job creation. The program is a Presidential initiative designed to afford communities real opportunities for growth and revitalization through economic opportunity, sustainable community development, community-based partnerships, and a strategic vision for change. Designated communities receive technical assistance, grants, employer tax credits, tax-free facility bonds, tax deductions, and increased coordination with federal programs. The urban portion of the program is administered through HUD; the rural portion through USDA Rural Development.
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Fringe
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The contiguous area on the periphery of existing development and infrastructure that is connected to the urban core.
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Greenbelt
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A belt of recreational parks, farmland, or uncultivated land surrounding a community. Also known as greenways.
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Greenfield
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A property that has not previously been used for commercial or industrial activities and is presumed free of contamination.
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Greenspace
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Open space, undeveloped space designated for parks, playgrounds, trails, gardens, and habitat restoration and preservation.
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Green architecture
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Green, sustainable, earth-friendly, and high-performance design.
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Green building techniques
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Designing, constructing and operating buildings and landscapes to incorporate energy efficiency, water conservation, waste minimization, pollution prevention, resource-efficient materials, and indoor environmental quality in all phases of a building's life.
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Hazardous Substance
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As defined under CERCLA, any chemical or radiological material that poses a threat to public health or the environment; also any such wastes as defined under RCRA. Examples include materials that are toxic, corrosive, ignitable, explosive, or chemically reactive.
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Hospital
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Related terms:biohazard, biohazardous waste, medical waste, blood borne pathogens, radiological waste, infectious wastes, pathogens, diseases, disposable needles, syringes, saws, blades, broken glasses, nails, tissues, organs, body parts, human flesh, fetuses, blood and body fluids, pharmaceuticals, drugs, dioxins, heavy metals, mercury, chemotherapy waste, tissue, blood, body parts, plasma, AIDS, hepatitis, blood, UST, LUST, underground storage tank, leaking underground storage tank, waste oil, grease, oil, petroleum, petroleum hydrocarbons, TPH, total petroleum hydrocarbons, diesel, unleaded, gasoline, fuel, BTEX, Benzene, Ethylbenzene, Ethyl Benzene, Toluene, Xylene, MTBE, methyl t-butyl ether, Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether.
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Human-Made Capital
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All of the tools, machines, equipment, technologies, structures, factories, and infrastructure that are the output product of economic production, or are consumed in the process of economic production.
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Incinerator
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Related terms: incinerators, heavy metals, dioxins, PAHs, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, lead, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, mercury, particulate matter, combustion, ash.
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Industrial Ecology
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The study of engineering principles and processes based on the concept that society must balance its accounts of materials and energy with the ultimate goal of minimizing harmful wastes and reusing, to the greatest extent possible, both the wastes and the industrial products themselves.
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Institutional Controls
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A legal or institutional measure that subject a property owner (or tenant) to limitations on access or activity at a particular site in order to protect human health or the environment. Institutional controls normally allow a contaminated property to be returned to use more quickly.
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Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS)
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IRIS is an electronic database that contains EPA's latest descriptive and quantitative regulatory information about chemical constituents. Files on chemicals maintained in IRIS contain information related to both noncarcinogenic and carcinogenic health effects.
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Landfill
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Related terms:landfills, junkyard(s), junk yard(s), scrap yard(s), scrapyards, dump(s), methane, VOCs, leachate, landfill gas, waste, garbage.
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Long-Term Monitoring
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Long-term monitoring of a site typically is performed to verify that contaminants pose no risk to human health or the environment and that natural processes are reducing contaminant levels and risk as predicted.
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Machine Shop
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Related terms: machine(s), equipment, solvent, cleaning, waste oil, grease, oil, petroleum, petroleum hydrocarbons, TPH, total petroleum hydrocarbons, diesel, gasoline, solvents, VOCs, volatile organic compounds, PCE, Tetrochloroethane, PERC, Perchloroethylene, TCE, trichloroethene, Trichloroethylene, BTEX, Benzene, Ethylbenzene, Ethyl Benzene, Toluene, Xylene.
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Metals
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Related terms: metals, smelter, lead, arsenic, selenium, cadmium, chromium, mercury, nickel, copper, zinc, lithium, beryllium, sodium, magnesium, aluminum, boron, silicon, potassium, calcium, scandium, titanium, vanadium, manganese, cobalt, silver, antimony.
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Migration Pathway
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A migration pathway is a potential path or route of contaminants from the source of contamination to contact with human populations or the environment. Migration pathways include air, surface water, groundwater, and land surface.
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Natural Capital
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The natural environment and its living systems, defined in terms of a stock of environmentally provided assets (soil, atmosphere, forests, minerals, water, fauna, wetlands), that provide the useful materials that represent the raw input or consumable products of human production.
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National Priorities List (NPL)
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The NPL is EPA's list of the most serious uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites identified for possible long-term remedial response under CERCLA. Inclusion of a site on the list is based primarily on the score the site receives under the HRS. Money from CERCLA can be used for cleanup only at sites that are on the NPL. EPA is required to update the NPL at least once a year.
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Non-Entitlement Community
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All units of general local government that do not meet the definition and qualifications for an entitlement community.
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Pesticide
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Related terms: pesticides, organophosphorous, DDT, chlordane, herbicide(s).
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Phase I Environmental Assessment
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A Phase I environmental assessment is an initial environmental investigation that is limited to a historical records search to determine ownership of a site and to identify the kinds of chemical processes that were carried out at the site. A Phase I assessment includes a site visit, but does not include any sampling. If such an assessment identifies no significant concerns, Phase II and III audits are not necessary. Phase I assessments also are commonly referred to as site assessments.
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Phase II Environmental Assessment
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A Phase II environmental assessment is an investigation that includes tests performed at the site to confirm the location and identity of environmental hazards. The assessment includes preparation of a report that includes recommendations for cleanup alternatives. Phase II assessments also are commonly referred to as site investigations.
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Phase III Environmental Audit
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A Phase III Environmental Audit includes the comprehensive characterization, evaluation, and removal of contaminated materials from a site, and their legal disposal.
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Potentially Responsible Parties (PRP)
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A potentially responsible party is any individual or organizational entity (e.g. owners, operators, transporters, managers, or generators of hazardous wastes) that is potentially responsible for, or contributing to, the contamination problems at a CERCLA (Superfund) site.
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Railroad
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Related terms: railroad(s), railyard(s), rail yard(s), rail road(s), herbicide(s), pesticide(s), spur, oil, grease, lube oil, lubricant, TPH, total petroleum hydrocarbons, gasoline, diesel, chromated copper arsenate, pentachlorophenol, creosote, PCB, polychlorinated biphenyl, paint, degreaser, solvent, VOCs, volatile organic compounds, SVOCs, semivolatile organic compounds, PAH, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, benzene.
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Record of Decision (ROD)
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A ROD is a legal, technical, and public document that explains which cleanup alternative will be used at a CERCLA NPL site. The ROD is based on information and technical analysis generated during the remedial investigation and feasibility study (RI/FS) and consideration of public comments and community concerns.
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Remedial Design and Remedial Action (RD/RA)
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The RD/RA is the step in the CERCLA cleanup process that follows the RI/FS and selection of a remedy. An RD is the preparation of engineering plans and specifications to properly and effectively implement the remedy. The RA is the actual construction or implementation of the remedy.
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Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
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The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (1976) established the federal regulatory program to track solid and hazardous waste management from generation to disposal. The Act defines solid and hazardous waste and authorizes EPA to set standards for facilities that generate or manage hazardous waste, and establishes a permit program for hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal facilities.
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RCRA Facility Assessment (RFA)
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A RFA is performed at a facility to determine the existence of any continuous or non-continuous releases of wastes. During the RFA, EPA or state regulators gather information on solid waste management units and other areas of concern at RCRA facilities, evaluate this information to determine whether there are releases that warrant further investigation and action, and determine the need to proceed to a RCRA Facility Investigation.
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RCRA Facility Investigation (RFI)
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The purpose of a RFI is to gather sufficient data at a facility to fully characterize the nature, extent, and rate of migration of contaminant releases identified in the RCRA Facility Assessment. The data generated during the RFI is used to determine the potential need for corrective measures and to aid in the selection and implementation of these measures.
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Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study (RI/FS)
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The RI/FS is the step in the CERCLA cleanup process that is conducted to gather sufficient information to support the selection of a site remedy that will reduce or eliminate the risks associated with contamination at the site. The RI involves site characterization -- collection of data and information necessary to characterize the nature and extent of contamination at the site. The RI also determines whether the contamination presents a significant risk to human health or the environment. The FS focuses on the development of specific response alternatives for addressing contamination at a site.
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Removal Action
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A removal action is usually a short-term effort designed to stabilize or cleanup a hazardous waste site that poses an immediate threat to human health, or the environment.
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Revolving Loan Fund
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A loan program, usually sponsored by a government entity, in which a specific amount of public funds is set aside to make loans for delineated purposes. As the loans are repaid, the funding pool is reallocated and loaned out again.
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Risk Assessment
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The process of identifying and documenting actual and perceived risks to human health or the environment, to allow further evaluation and appropriate responses.
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Risk-Based Corrective Action (RBCA)
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Risk-Based Corrective Action is a streamlined approach, defined by the ASTM, in which exposure and risk assessment practices are integrated with traditional components of the corrective action process to ensure that appropriate and cost-effective remedies are selected, and that limited resources are properly allocated.
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Risk Communication
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The exchange of information about human health or environmental risks among public and private individuals to accurately inform and promote mutual understanding.
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Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)
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The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) of 1974 was established to protect the quality of drinking water in the United States. The act focuses on all waters actually or potentially designed for use as drinking water, whether from aboveground or underground sources. The Act authorized EPA to establish safe standards of purity and requires all owners or operators of public water systems to comply with primary (health-related) standards. State governments that assume that authority from EPA also encourage attainment of secondary (nuisance-related) standards.
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Sanborn Map
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A Sanborn map is a record kept for insurance purposes that shows, for a specific property, the locations of such items as USTs, buildings, and areas where chemicals have been used for certain industrial processes. A Phase I environmental audit includes a review of Sanborn maps.
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Site Assessment
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The process of determining whether there is contamination present at a site, the source and extent of that contamination, and the potential pathways of exposure to the public and the environment.
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Social Capital
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People, their capacity levels, institutions, cultural cohesion, education, information, skills, and knowledge.
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Superfund
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Superfund is the trust fund that provides for the cleanup of hazardous substances released into the environment, regardless of fault. The Superfund was established under CERCLA and subsequent amendments to CERCLA. The term Superfund also is used to refer to cleanup programs designed and conducted under CERCLA and its subsequent amendments.
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Superfund Amendment and Reauthorization Act (SARA)
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SARA is the 1986 act amending CERCLA that increased the size of the Superfund trust fund and established a preference for the development and use of permanent remedies, and provided new enforcement and settlement tools.
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Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation (SITE) Program
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The SITE program is an effort established by EPA in 1986 to advance the development, evaluation, and commercialization of innovative treatment technologies for assessing and cleaning up hazardous waste sites. The program provides an opportunity for technology developers to demonstrate their technologies' ability to successfully process and remediate hazardous waste. The SITE program has four components-the Emerging Technology Program, the Demonstration Program, the Measurement and Monitoring Program, and the Technology Transfer Program.
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Sustainability
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The ongoing process of achieving development or redevelopment that does not undermine its physical or social systems of support.
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Sustainable Development
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A process of change in which the resources consumed (both social and ecological) are not depleted to the extent that they cannot be replicated. The concept also emphasizes that the creation of wealth within the community considers the wellbeing of both the human and natural environments, and is focused on the more complex processes of development rather than on simple growth or accumulation.
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Sustainable Brownfields
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A project defined as one in which redevelopment and growth are maintained over the long-term and occurs within the limits of the environment so that the current needs of the citizens are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
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Tax Increment Financing
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A method of financing infrastructure and other public costs of preparing and providing useable lands for development or redevelopment by enabling a city to specifically allocate the property tax revenue generated from a new development to the debt incurred as a part of the initial improvements required for that development. The taxable value on the developable land is frozen before development occurs. Upon the completion of development, the ensuing increased tax revenues realized as a result of an increase in taxable valuation above the frozen value is reallocated to pay for the improvements to the property. The developer still pays all taxes due on the increased value. The amount up to the frozen valuation is distributed to all governmental taxing jurisdictions (city, county, school district, public utility, etc.). However, the increased increment above the frozen value is reallocated away from the various taxing jurisdictions and governmental purposes and applied to the initial project improvement costs. Once these debts are recovered, the full taxable valuation is again distributed among the various taxing jurisdictions.
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Underground Storage Tank (UST)/ Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST)
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Related terms:gas station, waste oil, grease, oil, petroleum, petroleum hydrocarbons, TPH, total petroleum hydrocarbons, diesel, unleaded, gasoline, fuel, solvents, VOCs, volatile organic compounds, BTEX, Benzene, Ethylbenzene, Toluene, Xylene, MTBE, methyl t-butyl ether, Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether.
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Urban Sprawl
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The decentralization of the urban core through the unlimited outward extension of dispersed development beyond the urban fringe where low density residential and commercial development exacerbates fragmentation of powers over land use; also, the consumption of resources and land in excess of what is necessary where development is costly and underutilizes existing infrastructure.
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Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCP)
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A VCP is a formal means established by many states to facilitate assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment of brownfields sites. VCPs typically address the identification and cleanup of potentially contaminated sites that are not on the CERCLA NPL. Under VCPs, owners or developers of a site are encouraged to approach the state voluntarily to work out a process by which the site can be readied for development. Many state VCPs provide technical assistance, liability assurances, and funding support for such efforts.
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Wood
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Related terms: pulp, paper, creosote, PCB, polychlorinated biphenyls, biocides, mercury, ink, dye, dioxin.
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Zoning
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Zoning is the exercise of the civil authority of a municipality to regulate and control the character and use of property.
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