Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Rockslide or debris slide:
rapid, sliding descent of a rock mass down a slope.
Routes of exposure:
the path chemicals and substances enter the human body; includes
inhalation, ingestion, and dermal absorption.
Sand:
clastic sediment of a size between 1/16 and 2 mm.
Science-based landscape planning:
the process of understanding the physical processes
inherent to a natural landscape's formation and its long-term sustainability, and
transforming selected components of these processes into planning principles and
actions to preserve or enhance the cultural landscape.
Screen:
a perforated pipe placed at the bottom of a well allowing water to seep into the
well from an aquifer or saturated medium.
Secondary porosity:
porosity formed within a geological medium after the material has
been deposited.
Sediment:
settled matter at the bottom of a liquid.
Sedimentary deposits:
the accumulation of natural materials and sediments formed at or
near the surface of Earth at ordinary temperatures and pressures.
Sedimentary rocks:
rocks formed by the mechanical weathering or erosion of preexisting
rock or from dissolved material precipitating from solution.
Sedimentation:
the deposition of eroded material in a sink.
Semi-volatile organic compounds:
a group of organic compounds much less volatile than
VOCs. Also referred to as base-neutral-acid compounds.
Silt:
a clastic sediment with a size range between 1/16 and 1/256 of a mm.
Simplification:
the reduction in the number of species in an ecosystem or community.
Sink:
location of deposition.
Sink hole:
a rounded depression of the ground formed when a cave in the subsurface
collapses.
Site:
a parcel of land including one or more than one property or easement; a specific
location.
Situation:
the outlying places related to a site.
Slump:
the downward slipping of a coherent body of rock or regolith along a curved sur-
face or rupture.
Soil:
the top layer of Earth's surface consisting of rock and mineral particles mixed with
organic matter.
Soil creep:
slow movement of a soil slope.
Soil excavation:
a remedial method involving the removal of contaminated soil and its
disposal at an offsite location, typically a regulated landfill.
Soil vapor extraction:
a remedial method that removes contaminants from soil in the form
of vapors.
Soil washing:
a remedial method that “scrubs” soil to remove and separate the contami-
nant from the soil using detergents or a variety of chemicals depending in the
type of contaminant, concentration, and soil type.
Solidification:
a remedial method involving the addition and mixing of a substance
designed to immobilize or entomb contamination. Also referred to as stabilization.
Solubility:
a measured property of a solid, liquid, or gaseous chemical substance termed a
solute to dissolve in a liquid solvent to form a homogeneous solution.
Solute:
a solid, liquid, or gaseous chemical substance dissolved in anther substance.
Solvent:
a solid, liquid, or gaseous chemical substance that dissolves another substance.
Sorption:
refers to the action of both absorption and adsorption.
Sorting:
the spatial arrangement of particles during their transport and deposition by size.
Source control:
abating contamination at its source.
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