Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Conservation corridor:
Connections between suitable habitats that allow passage
of plant or animal species.
Conservation easement:
A voluntary agreement that allows a landowner to limit
the type or amount of development on their property while retaining pri-
vate ownership of the land. The easement is signed by the landowner, who
is the easement donor, and by the Conservancy, who is the party receiving
the easement. The Conservancy must enforce the terms of the easement in
perpetuity.
Conservation feature:
A feature in a building designed to reduce the usage of
energ y.
Conservation program:
A program in which a utility company furnishes home
weatherization services free or at reduced cost or provides free or low-cost
devices for saving energy, such as energy-efficient light bulbs, flow restric-
tors, weather stripping, and water heater insulation.
Conservation Reserve Program (CRP):
A program that provides farm owners or
operators with an annual per-acre rental payment and half the cost of estab-
lishing a permanent land cover in exchange for retiring environmentally
sensitive cropland from production for 10 to 15 years. In 1996, Congress
reauthorized CRP for an additional round of contracts, limiting enrollment
to 36.4 million acres at any time. The 2002 Farm Act increased the enroll-
ment limit to 39 million acres. Producers can offer land for competitive
bidding based on an Environmental Benefits Index (EBI) during periodic
signups or can automatically enroll more limited acreages in processes such
as riparian buffers, field windbreaks, and grass strips on a continuous basis.
CRP is funded through the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC).
Conservation status:
Assessment of the status of ecological processes and of the
viability of species or populations in an ecoregion.
Conventional hydroelectric (hydropower) plant:
A plant in which all of the power
is produced from natural streamflow as regulated by available storage.
Conventional oil and natural gas production:
Crude oil and natural gas produced
by a well drilled into a geologic formation in which the reservoir and fluid
characteristics permit the oil and natural gas to readily flow to the wellbore.
Cooling tower:
A structure in which heat is removed from hot condensate.
Core:
A cylinder of rock recovered from the well by a special coring drill bit.
Correlation (statistical term):
In its most general sense, correlation denotes the
interdependence between quantitative or qualitative data. It would include
the association of dichotomized attributes and the contingency of multiple
classified attributes. The concept is quite general and may be extended to
more than two variables. The word is most frequently used in a somewhat
narrower sense to denote the relationship between measurable variates or
ranks.
Criteria pollutant:
A pollutant determined to be hazardous to human health and
regulated under U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) National
Ambient Air Quality Standards. The 1970 amendments to the Clean Air
Act required the USEPA to describe the health and welfare impacts of a
pollutant as the criteria for inclusion in the regulatory regime.
