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There are 3 types of information in this glossary: Acronyms, Definitions and Sources for the Mapping Datasets.
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ACRONYMS
AHERA: Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act
AOC: Area of Contamination
ARARs: Applicable or Relevant Appropriate Requirements
ATSDR: U.S. Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry
BACM: Best Available Control Measures
BACT: Best Available Control Technology
BADT: Best Available Demonstrated Technology
BAT: Best Available Technology
BATEA: Best Available Treatment Economically Achievable
BCT: Best Control Technology
BCPCT: Best Conventional Pollutant Control Technology
BDAT: Best Demonstrated Achievable Technology
BDCT: Best Demonstrated Control Technology
BDT: Best Demonstrated Technology
CAA: Clean Air Act
CAAA: Clean Air Act Amendments
CERCLA: Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act
CERCLIS: Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Information Service
CFR: Code of Federal Regulations
CWA: Clean Water Act (aka FWPCA)
DEC: Department of Environmental Control
DERA: Defense Environmental Restoration Account
DWS: Drinking Water Standard
EPA: Environmental Protection Agency
EPCRA: Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act
FFA: Federal Facility Agreement
FIFRA: Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act
FOIA: Freedom of Information Act
FONSI: Finding of No Significant Impact
FR: Federal Register
FS: Feasibility Study
FWPCA: Federal Water Pollution and Control Act (aka CWA)
HAP: Hazardous Air Pollutant
HAZMAT: Hazardous Materials
HW: Hazardous Waste
HWLT: Hazardous Waste Land Treatment
HWM: Hazardous Waste Management
HSWA: Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments
IRA: Interim Response Action
LAER: Lowest Achievable Emission Rate
LEPC: Local Emergency Planning Committee, as established by EPCRA in 1986
MACT: Maximum Achievable Control Technology
NAAQS: National Ambient Air Quality Standard
NCP: National Oil and Hazardous Substances Contingency Plan
NESHAP: National Emission Standards Hazardous Air Pollutants
NPDES: National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
NPL: National Priorities List
NSPS: New Source Performance Standards
NSDWR: National Secondary Drinking Water Regulations
NTP: National Toxicology Program
PA/SI: Preliminary Assessment/Site Investigation
PRP: Potentially Responsible Party
PSD: Prevention of Significant Deterioration
PWS: Public Water Supply/System
PWSS: Public Water Supply System
RAB: Restoration Advisory Board
RACM: Reasonably Available Control Measures
RACT: Reasonably Available Control Technology
RCRA: Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
RD/RA: Remedial Design/Remedial Action
RFP: Reasonable Further Progress
RI/FS: Remedial Information/Feasibility Study
ROD: Record of Decision
SARA: Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986
SDWA: Safe Drinking Water Act
SERC: State Emergency Planning Commission, as established by EPCRA in 1986
SES: Secondary Emissions Standard
SF: Superfund
SIP: State Implementation Plan
TCLP: Total Concentrate Leachate Procedure; Toxicity Characteristic Leachate Procedure
SWDA: Solid Waste Disposal Act
TCRI: Toxic Chemical Release Inventory
TRI: Toxic Release Inventory
TRIP: Toxic Release Inventory Program
TSCA: Toxic Substances Control Act
USDW: Underground Sources of Drinking Water
USEPA: United States Environmental Protection Agency
UST: Underground Storage Tanks
VE: Visual Emissions
WLA/TMDL: Wasteload Allocation/Total Maximum Daily Load
WQS: Water Quality Standard
ZRL: Zero Risk Level
§: Section
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DEFINITIONS
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Acute Effect: An adverse effect on any living organism in which severe symptoms develop rapidly and often subside after the exposure stops.
Administrative Order: A legal document signed by EPA directing an individual, business or other entity to take corrective action or refrain from an activity. The order describes the violations and actions to be taken, and can be enforced in court. Such order may be issued, for example, as a result of an administrative complaint whereby the respondent is ordered to pay a penalty for violations of a statute.
Air Quality Standards: The level of selected pollutants set by law that may not be exceeded in outside air. Used to determine the amount of pollutants that may be entitled by industry.
Ambient: Any unconfined portion of the atmosphere; open air; outside surrounding air.
Asbestos: A mineral fiber that can pollute air or water and cause cancer or asbestosis when inhaled. EPA has banned or severely restricted the use of asbestos in manufacturing and construction.
Attainment Area: An area considered to have air quality as good as or better than the national ambient air quality standard as defined in the CAA. An area may be an attainment area for one pollutant and a non-attainment area for other.
Best Available Control Technology (BACT): The application of the most advanced methods, systems and techniques for eliminating or minimizing discharges and emissions on a case-by-case basis as determined by EPA. BACT represents an emission limit based on the maximum degree of reduction of each pollutant as described in regulations under the CAA. The determination of BACT takes into account energy, environmental, economic effects and other costs.
Best Available Technology Economically Achievable (BATEA): Originally described under Section 304(b)(2)(B) of the CWA, this level of control is generally described as the best technology currently in use and includes controls on toxic pollutants.
Best Demonstrated Available Technology (BDAT): As identified by EPA, the most effective commercially available means of treating specific types of hazardous waste. The BDATs may change with advances in treatment technologies.
Best Management Practices (BMP): Procedures or controls other than effluent limitations to prevent or reduce pollution of surface water (includes runoff control, spill prevention and operating procedures).
Bioaccumulation: the retention or accumulation of non-biodegradable or slowly biodegradable chemicals in living things, often in a particular part of a living thing, such as marine mammal blubber or fish liver. In other words, when chemicals get into a living organism, they may accumulate in one part of the body; this is bioaccummulation.
Biological amplification: increase in concentration of DDT, PCBs, and other slowly degradable, fat-soluble chemicals in organisms at successively higher levels of a food web. When chemicals are distributed in the environment, they initially become more dilute (less concentrated). However, some chemicals, such as many chlorinated hydrocarbons, undergo biological magnification and become more concentrated as they move through the food web, sometimes reaching dangerously high concentrations in the top predators such as large fish, birds, and humans.
By-product: Materials, other than the intended product, generated as a result of an industrial process.
Carcinogenic or Carcinogen: Capable of causing cancer. A suspected carcinogen is a substance that may cause cancer in humans or animals but for which the evidence is not conclusive.
CERCLIS: The federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Information System. This database includes all sites which have been nominated for investigation by the Superfund program and the actions that have been taken at these sites. If the site investigation reveals contamination, the site is ranked and may be included on the National Priorities List for Superfund cleanup. Inclusion in the CERCLIS database does not necessarily mean that a property is a hazardous waste site. An emergency action may have been conducted there or a simple investigation which concluded that no further action was required.
Chlorinated hydrocarbons: organic compounds made up of atoms of carbon, hydrogen, and chlorine. All chlorinated hydrocarbons have a carbon-chlorine bond. Sometimes hydrogen is not present at all, as in carbon tetrachloride (CCl4). Examples of chlorinated hydrocarbons include DDT and PCBs. Chlorinated hydrocarbons tend to be very long-lived and persistent in the environment; they tend to be toxic; and they tend to accumulate in the food web and undergo biological amplification.
Chlorine: one of the 92 naturally occurring chemical elements. It is a very reactive chemical that readily attaches itself to other elements to form new compounds. In nature, chlorinated organic compounds occur relatively rarely, and when they do occur, they tend not to be incorporated into mammals. During this century, the chemical industry found ways to attach chlorine atoms to many organic compounds, especially hydrocarbons, thus making a vast array of toxic, persistent chemicals called chlorinated hydrocarbons (or organochlorines).
Chloroflurocarbons (CFCs): A family of chemical commonly used in air conditioners and refrigerators as coolants and also as solvents and aerosol propellants. CFCs drift into the upper atmosphere where their chlorine components destroy ozone. CFCs are thought to be a major cause of the ozone hole over Antarctica.
Code of Federal Regulations (CFR): A periodic publication of the regulations established by U.S. Law.
Community Right-to-Know Act: See Emergency Planning & Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA).
Contaminant: poison, toxic substance that causes harm.
Corrosive: A substance that eats or wears away materials gradually by chemical action.
Consent Decree: A legal document submitted by the Department of Justice on behalf of the EPA for approval by a federal judge to settle a case. A consent decree can be used to formalize an agreement reached between EPA and potentially responsible parties (PRPs) for cleanup at a Superfund site. Consent decrees also are signed by regulated facilities to cease or correct certain action or processes that are polluting the environment and include payment of penalties. Many environmental regulations use consent decrees.
Cradle-to-Grave or Manifest System: A procedure in which hazardous wastes are identified as they are produced and are followed through further treatment, transportation and disposal by a series of permanent, linkable, descriptive documents.
Criteria: Descriptive factors taken into account by EPA in setting standards for pollutants. For example, water quality criteria described the concentration of pollutants that most fish can be exposed to for an hour without showing acute effects.
Discharge: The release of any waste into the environment from a point source. Usually refers to the release of a liquid waste into a body of water through an outlet such as a pipe, but also refers to air emissions.
Disposal: The discharge, deposit, injection , dumping, spilling, leaking or placing of any solid waste or hazardous waste into the environment (land, surface water, ground water and air).
Disposal Facility: A landfill, incinerator or other facility which receives waste for disposal. The facility may have one or many disposal methods available for use. Does not include wastewater treatment.
Effluent: Wastewater discharged from a point source, such as a pipe.
Effluent Guidelines: Technical documents developed by EPA which set discharge limits for particular types of industries and specific pollutants.
Effluent Limitations: Limits on the amounts of pollutants which may be discharged by a facility; these limits are calculated so that water quality standards will not be violated even at low stream flows.
Emergency Planning & Community Right-to-Know Act: (EPCRA) 42 U.S.C. 11011 (1986). Also known as Title III of SARA, EPCRA was enacted by Congress as the national legislation on community safety. This law was designed to help local communities protect public health, safety, and the environment from chemical hazards. To implement EPCRA, Congress required each state to appoint a State Emergency Response Commission (SERC). The SERCs were required to divide their states into Emergency Planning Districts and to name a Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) for each district. Broad representation by fire fighters, health officials, government and media representatives, community groups, industrial facilities and emergency managers ensures that all necessary elements of the planning process are represented. The law requires industry and others to make available to you information on potential chemical hazards and inventories, and on releases of toxic chemicals into the environment. A facility must report to the Toxics Release Inventory if it conducts certain, broadly-defined, manufacturing activities, has ten or more employees and processes 25,000 pounds or uses more than 10,000 pounds of any listed chemical. A facility must report for each listed chemical, among other things: the amount released into the environment; amount of shipped from the facility; amount used; and amount present.
Environmental Justice: The fair treatment of people of all races, cultures, incomes and educational levels with respect to the development and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies. Fair treatment implies that no population should be forced to shoulder a disproportionate share of exposure to the negative effects of pollution due to lack of political or economic strength.
Epidemiology: study of the patterns of diseases and their causes within defined groups of people.
Extremely Hazardous Substances (EHS): Any of the 366 (+ or -) chemicals or hazardous substances identified by EPA on the basis of hazard or toxicity and listed under EPCRA. The list is periodically revised.
Generator: A facility or mobile source that emits pollutants into the air; any person who produces a hazardous waste that is listed by EPA and therefore subject to regulation.
Ground Water: Water found below the surface of the land, usually in porous rock formations. Ground water is the source of water found in wells and springs and is used frequently for drinking.
Hazardous Waste: A subset of solid wastes that pose substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment and meet any of the following criteria:
- is specifically listed as a hazardous waste by EPA;
- exhibits one or more of the characteristics of hazardous waste
(ignitibility, corrosiveness, reactivity, and/or toxicity).
- is generated by the treatment of hazardous waste; or is contained in a hazardous waste.
Land Disposal Restrictions (Land Ban): Mandated by the 1984 amendments to RCRA; prohibits the disposal of hazardous wastes into or on the land.
Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC): The body appointed by the State Emergency Response Commission (SERC), as required by EPCRA, which develops comprehensive emergency plans for Local Emergency Planning Districts, collects MSDS forms and chemical release reports, and provides this information to the public. Each county or borough and some large city governments participate in an LEPC.
Manifest System: Tracking of hazardous waste from "cradle to grave" (generation through disposal), with accompanying documents known as "manifests".
Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS): Printed material concerning a hazardous chemical, or Extremely Hazardous Substance, including its physical properties, hazards to personnel, fire and explosion potential, safe handling recommendations, health effects, fire fighting techniques, reactivity, and proper disposal. Originally established for employee safety by the Occupational and Safety Health Act.
Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT): Generally, the best available control technology, taking into account costs and technical feasibility.
Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL): The maximum level of certain contaminants permitted in drinking water supplied by a public water system as set by EPA under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.
Maximum Contaminant Level Goal (MCLG): The maximum level of a contaminant that is associated with no adverse health effects from drinking water containing that contaminant over a lifetime. For chemicals believed to cause cancer, the MCLGs are set at zero. MCLGs are not enforceable, but are ideal, health-based goals which are set in the National Primary Drinking Water Standards developed by EPA. MCLs are set as close to MCLGs as possible, considering costs and technology.
Mitigation: Measures taken to reduce adverse effects on the environment.
National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS): Maximum air pollutant standards that EPA set under the Clean Air Act for attainment by each state. The standards were to be achieved by 1975, along with state implementation plans to control industrial sources in each state.
National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP): Emission standards set by EPA for an air pollutant not covered by NAAQS that may cause an increase in deaths or serious, irreversible or incapacitating illness. Primary standards are designed to protect human health, secondary standards to protect public welfare.
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES): The primary permitting program under the Clean Water Act which regulates most discharges to surface water.
National Priorities List (NPL): A list of sites, many nominated by the states, for hazardous waste cleanup under Superfund.
Nonpoint Source: Any source of pollution not associated with a distinct discharge point. Includes sources such as rainwater, runoff from agricultural lands, industrial sites, parking lots, and timber operations, as well as escaping gases from pipes and fittings.
Parts per billion (ppb): the ratio of a number of parts of a chemical in one billion parts of a particular gas, liquid or solid. For example, one part benzene vapor to a billion parts of air is one ppb.
Parts per million (ppm): the ratio of the number of parts of a chemical found in one million parts of a particular gas, liquid, or solid.
Permit: A legal document issued by state and/or federal authorities containing a detailed description of the proposed activity and operating procedures as well as appropriate requirements and regulations. The permitting process includes provisions for public comment.
Petrochemicals: chemicals obtained by refining (distilling) crude petroleum (oil) and used as raw materials in the manufacture of most industrial chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides, plastics, synthetic fibers, paints, medicines, and other products.
Point Source: A stationary location or fixed facility such as an industry or municipality that discharges pollutants into air or surface water through pipes, ditches, lagoons, wells or stacks; a single identifiable source such as a ship or mine.
Pollution: Any substances in water, soil or air that degrade the natural quality of the environment, offend the sense of sight, taste or smell, or cause a health hazard. The usefulness of the natural resource is usually impaired by the presence of pollutants and contaminants.
Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs): A group of toxic, persistent chemicals used in electrical transformers and capacitors for insulating purposes, and in gas pipeline systems as a lubricant. The sale and new use of PCBs were banned by law in 1979.
Potentially Responsible Party (PRP): Any individual or company that is potentially responsible for, or has contributed to, a spill or other contamination at a Superfund site. Whenever possible, EPA requires PRPs to clean up sites they have contaminated.
Release: Any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping or disposing into the environment of a hazardous or toxic chemical or extremely hazardous substance.
Remedial Action: The actual construction or clean-up phase of a Superfund site cleanup.
Risk assessment: process of gathering data and making assumptions to estimate short- and long-term harmful effects or "no" effects on human health or the environment from exposure to hazards associated with the use of a particular product or technology.
Solid Waste: As defined under RCRA, any solid, semi-solid, liquid or contained gaseous materials discarded from industrial, commercial, mining or agricultural operations, and from community activities. Solid waste includes garbage, construction debris, commercial refuse, sludge from water supply or waste treatment plants or air pollution control facilities, and other discarded materials.
State Emergency Response Commission (SERC): The agency appointed by the Governor to oversee the administration of EPCRA at the state level. This commission designates and appoints members to LEPCs and reviews emergency response plans for cities and counties.
Synergistic: effect of two or more chemicals that act together to produce a total effect greater than the sum of the separate effects.
Teratogen: a chemical or substance (for example, ionizing radiation, and some viruses) that cn cause birth defects or other abnormalities in offspring.
Toxic Release Inventory (TRI): A database of annual toxic releases from certain manufacturers compiled from EPCRA Section 313 reports. Manufacturers must report annually to EPA and the states the amounts of almost 350 toxic chemicals and 22 chemical categories that they release directly to air, water or land, inject underground or transfer to off-site facilities. EPA compiles these reports and makes the information available to the public under the "Community Right-to-know" portion of the law.
Toxic Substance: A chemical or mixture that can cause illness, death, disease, or birth defects. The quantities and exposures necessary to cause these effects can vary widely. Many toxic substances are pollutants and contaminants in the environment.
Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facility (TSD): Refers to any facility which treats, stores, or disposes of hazardous wastes.
Underground Storage Tank (UST): A tank and nay underground piping connected to the tank that has 10% or more of its volume (including pipe volume) beneath the surface of the ground. USTs are designed to hold gasoline, other petroleum products and hazardous materials.
Volatile: tendency for a liquid to evaporate or vaporize readily. A volatile liquid has a high vapor pressure and can be readily inhaled.
Water Quality Standard (WQS): The combination of a designated use and the maximum concentration of a pollutant which will protect that use for any given body of water.
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SOURCES
Agencies Contributing Data for GIS Mapping
Summary of Toxic Pollution Sources in Alaska
The sources of data for this map include: the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. The chemical weapons data were obtained from the Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel Program Survey and Analysis Report, Department of the Army, November 1993. Radioactive waste information was obtained from the United States General Accounting Office Report on Nuclear Health and Safety: Sites Used for Disposal of Radioactive Waste in Alaska, July 1994 (GAO/RCED-94-130FS).
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Toxic and Radioactive Waste Sites
Chemical weapons data were obtained from the Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel Program Survey and Analysis Report, Department of the Army, November 1993. We have included sites where agencies report that clean-up has occurred because the effectiveness of clean-up has not been independently verified.
Radioactive waste information was obtained from the United States General Accounting Office Report on Nuclear Health and Safety: Sites Used for Disposal of Radioactive Waste in Alaska, July 1994 (GAO/RCED-94-130FS). We include these sites because radioactive materials were used or disposed at each location. Although in some locations agencies report that clean-up measures may have been taken, the effectiveness of the clean-up has not been independently verified.
The Superfund program, which includes the National Priorities List (NPL), is a part of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). Sites that contain the worst toxic waste problems are included on the NPL for oversight and clean-up.
Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) is a publicly available database of annual toxic releases maintained by the EPA. Manufacturers are required to report the amounts of approximately 350 toxic chemicals and 22 chemical categories released directly to air, water, or land, or chemicals that are injected underground or transfered to off-site facilities.
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Sites with Potential for Toxic Exposure to Humans
These data were obtained from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC) Hazards Ranking Model.
These rankings are based on a set of criteria determined by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC) (toxicity, quantity, air exposure, ground water exposure, surface water exposure). The ranking system generates a numeric 'R-score' upon which the map symbols are based. The numeric 'R-scores' are a mathematical summation and cannot be determined for any site where all exposure indices are unknown. Greenpeace Alaska has not independently assessed ADEC's ranking model.
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Priority Toxic Waste Sites in Alaska
These data were obtained from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC) Hazards Ranking Model.
The breakdown for priority classifications of the Hazards Ranking Model are based on Greenpeace Alaska's interpretation of the total numeric 'R-score' for each site. The classifications are based on criteria determined by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC) (toxicity, quantity, air exposure, ground water exposure, surface water exposure). The ranking system generates a numeric 'R-score' upon which the map symbols are based. The numeric 'R-scores' are a mathematical summation and cannot be determined for any site where all exposure indices are unknown. Greenpeace Alaska has not independently assessed ADEC's ranking model.
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Military and other Federal Toxic Waste Sites
The chemical weapons data were obtained from the Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel Program Survey and Analysis Report, Department of the Army, November 1993. Radioactive waste information was obtained from the United States General Accounting Office Report on Nuclear Health and Safety: Sites Used for Disposal of Radioactive Waste in Alaska, July 1994 (GAO/RCED-94-130FS).
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