If you hear someone tell you the water to be delivered to your facility is currently in a “holding tank,” best call the health authorities as quickly as possible. Water in a holding tank is invariably wastewater. Not only that, its wastewater being stored before it is delivered to a treatment center, so you do not want to be drinking it.
This gives you an idea of how important it is to know your terms and terminology regarding water. Some more terms you should be aware of – and their definitions – include the following:
Hydrologic cycle. Many things in nature follow a cycle. They move from one form to another and then back again. In the case of the hydrologic cycle, it involves the movement of water from the earth, which evaporates from oceans and waterways, returning to the atmosphere. From there, it eventually returns back to earth in the form of moisture, where it is absorbed by vegetation or turns into rainfall.
Induced charge. In our earlier “terms and terminology” blog, we discussed aquifers. Because so many are now running dry, there is an attempt to replenish them. This is called an induced charge.
Inorganic substances. Sometimes we hear that water contains inorganic substances. These are substances not derived from organic matter. We should add that just because water may contain inorganic substances does not necessarily mean it is unsafe to drink. Nor are substances that are organic, derived from nature, always safe to drink. Safety, at this juncture, is not the issue. Instead, it’s whether these substances are inorganic or organic.
Lagoon. When we hear the word “lagoon,” we often picture a lovely pond. However, lagoon usually refers to wastewater, especially useful when treating manure from livestock. The lagoon helps breakdown bacteria in the waste. By the way, a pond is just a body of water smaller than a lake.
Leachate. Here’s one you probably have not heard before. Leachate refers to a liquid formed when water soaks into and through landfills. In the process, it picks up and dissolves materials found in waste. This means it helps break down waste.
Lust. Don’t get carried away. Lust has little to do with water and is not something you want to play around with. A Leaking Underground Storage Tank – LUST – if often used to store gasoline, diesel fuel, heating oil, and liquid chemicals. When there is LUST, it means the container is leaking.
Losing stream. You may have read this as losing “steam.” While we all have days when we feel like we are losing steam, when it comes to losing “stream,” it means that streams of water are disappearing. They are flowing into an aquifer below the earth’s surface.
Percolate. When we see water percolating in a natural environment, it means the water is coming to the top of a mound or through rocks, for instance, but then seeping down that mound or the rocks through pores in the nearby surface.
pH. All liquids have a pH. This refers to the concentration of hydrogen ion in the liquid. A pH scale runs from 0 to 14. Values less than seven are acidic, and values greater than seven are alkaline.
Waterless urinals. These urinals, as the name implies, use no-water. As they are used, gravity moves urine down the urinal into the sewer below. A trap or cylinder at the base of the urinal blocks sewer odors, helping to keep the urinal and the restroom odor-free, clean, and sanitary.
Water conservation/Water efficiency. These are two separate terms and do not mean the same thing. Water conservation is short term scaling back on water consumption, for instance, during a drought. Water efficiency, on the other hand, refers to long term water reduction. It typically involves installing restroom fixtures that use far less water or no water at all compared to traditional fixtures.
