Ecological Evaluation Technical Guidance - State of New Jersey

4.0 Definitions"Area of concern" or “AOC” means any existing or former location where hazardoussubstances, hazardous wastes, or pollutants are or were known or suspected to have beendischarged, generated, manufactured, refined, transported, stored, handled, treated,disposed, or where hazardous substances, hazardous wastes, or pollutants have or mayhave migrated (N.J.A.C. 7:26E-1.8).“Assessment endpoints” means the explicit expressions of the environmental value to beprotected.“Background Area” means a habitat similar to the habitat being assessed, but one that isoutside of the influence of the site discharge.“Background Contamination” means the contaminant levels in the immediate area of thesite that are not attributable to the site discharge itself and that originated from eithernatural sources (not man-made) or offsite discharges (man-made, discharges not relatedto the site). These background contaminant concentrations are generally derived bycollecting samples in the background area.“Benthic community” means organisms that live in and on the bottom substrate of asurface water body.“Benthic macroinvertebrate survey” means the use of macroinvertebrate collection,organism identification, and data analysis to assess various metrics including community,population, and functional parameters such as species richness and tolerance indices.“Bioaccumulation” means the accumulation of contaminants in the tissue of organismsthrough any route, including respiration, ingestion, or direct contact with contaminatedmedia (USEPA 2000c).“Bioavailability” means the individual physical, chemical, and biological interactions thatdetermine the exposure of plants and animals to chemicals associated with soils andsediments (ITRC 2011).“Biomagnification” means the process of bioconcentration and bioaccumulation bywhich tissue concentrations of bioaccumulated chemicals increase as the chemical passesup through two or more trophic levels. The term implies an efficient transfer of chemicalfrom food to consumer, so that residue concentrations increase systematically from onetrophic level to the next (USEPA 2000c).“Breeding season” means the most suitable season, usually with favorable conditions andabundant food and water, for breeding among some wild animals and birds (wildlife).“Chlorotic vegetation” means the abnormally yellowing or whitening of normally greenplant tissue, resulting from partial failure to develop chlorophyll or decreased productionof chlorophyll.“Comingled contamination” means unrelated contaminants that are mixed in an area ormedia.“Community assessment” means the evaluation of community structure by measuringbiotic characteristics (e.g., species abundance, diversity, and composition); communityEcological Evaluation Technical Guidance Document 11Version 1.2 8/29/12