1 - paducah environmental information center

Annual Site Environmental Report for 1999
strata - Beds, layers, or zones of rocks.
substrate - The substance, base, surface, or
medium in which an organism lives and grows.
surface water - All water on the surface of the
earth, as distinguished from groundwater.
suspended solids - Mixture of fine, nonsettling
particles of any solid within a liquid or gas.
terrestrial radiation - Ionizing radiation
emitted from radioactive materials, primarily
4°K, thorium, and uranium, in the earth's soils.
Terrestrial radiation contributes to natural
background radiation.
tbermoluminescent dosimeter (TLD) - A
device used to measure external gamma
radiation.
total activity - The total quantity of radioactive
decay particles that are emitted from a sample.
total solids - The sum of total dissolved solids and
suspended solids.
turbidity - A measure of the concentration of
sediment or suspended particles in solution.
upgradient • In the direction of increasing
hydrostatic head.
vadose zone - Soil zone located above the water
table.
volatile organic compound (VOC) - Any
organic compound whic~ has a low boiling point
and readily volatilizes into air (e.g.,
trichloroethane, tetrachloroethylene, and
trichloroethylene ).
watersbed - The region draining into a river,
river system, or body of water. --
wetland - A lowland area, such as a marsh or
swamp, inundated or saturated by surface or
groundwater sufficiently to support hydrophytic
vegetation typically adapted to life in saturated·
soils.
wind rose - A diagram in which statistical
information concerning direction and speed of the
wind at a location is summarized.
.,i"
total suspended particulates - Refers to the
concentration of particulates in suspension in the
air irrespective of the nature, source, or size of the
particulates. .
transuranic element (TRU~ - An element above
uranium in 'the IPeriodic Table, ,that is,. with an
atomic number greater than: 92. All 11 TRUsare
produced, artificiallyaild~ are radioactive. They are
neptunium, plutonium, americium, curium,
berkelium, californium,einsteinium~ fermium,
mendeleVIum, nobeliilm~· and lawrencium.
Glossary
G-7.