BACKGROUND
- the quality of the
soil and water in the
area where the fertilizer storage facility is to be
constructed. By
checking background soil and water quality, soil
and water testing
done any time after construction of the facility will
help determine if
there is any contamination due to the fertilizer
facility.
DISSOLUTION
- the process whereby mineral or rock material
is dissolved due to
chemical weathering.
GROUND WATER
- the water under the surface of the earth that
is found within the
pore spaces and cracks between the particles of
soil, sand, gravel and
bedrock.
HYDROGEOLOGY
- the study of the ground water.
METHEMOGLOBINEMIA
- or blue baby syndrome, is an illness that begins
when large amounts
of nitrates in water are ingested by an infant and
converted to nitrite
by the baby's digestive system. The nitrite then
reacts with
oxyhemoglobin (the oxygen-carrying blood protein) to
form methemoglobin,
which cannot combine with oxygen. If a large enough
amount of
methemoglobin is formed in the blood, the tissues
may be deprived of
oxygen, causing the infant to develop a blue
coloration of their mucous
membranes and possibly digestive and respiratory
problems. This illness
is most common in rural areas where agricultural
practices are
responsible for nitrate-contaminated water in
domestic wells.
NITRATE
- composed of one atom of nitrogen (N) and
three atoms of oxygen
(O). It occurs in ground water primarily from
agricultural practices
(fertilizers, manure, and sludge) and septic
systems.
NITRATE-NITROGEN
- a means of expressing the nitrate
concentration in terms of only
the nitrogen present.
POROSITY
- the ratio of the volume of pore (non-rock or
non-sediment) spaces
in a rock or sediment to the total volume (rock or
sediment + pore
spaces).
PRIMARY
POROSITY
- the porosity that develops in sediment during
the final stages of
sedimentation or is present within the particles
during deposition.
SECONDARY
POROSITIES
- in contrast to primary porosity, is the porosity
that develops in
the rock or sediment after its deposition, by means
of such processes as
dissolution or fracturing.