Water Quality Definition of Terms

Question 1

refers to the amount of contaminant load that can be discharged to a specific water body without exceeding the water quality guidelines.

Answer 1

Assimilative Capacity

Question 2

includes, but is not limited to, the act of spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, releasing, or dumping of any material into a water body or onto land from which it might flow or drain into said water.

Answer 2

Discharge

Question 3

means discharges from known sources, which are passed into a body of water or land, or wastewater flowing out of a manufacturing plant, industrial plant including domestic, commercial, and recreational facilities.

Answer 3

Effluent

Question 4

refers to a recognizable economic unit under a single ownership or control, i.e., under a single legal entity, which engages in one or predominantly one kind of economic activity at a single physical location. This includes industrial, commercial, and institutional establishments.

Answer 4

Establishment

Question 5

means water containing less than 500 parts per million dissolved common salt, sodium chloride, such as that in groundwater, rivers, ponds, and lakes.

Answer 5

Freshwater

Question 6

means any legal restriction or limitation on quantities, rates, and/or concentrations or any combination thereof, of physical, chemical, or biological parameters of effluent which a person or point source is allowed to discharge into a body of water or land; that is applicable to all industry categories and defined according to the classification of the receiving water body.

Answer 6

General Effluent Standards (GES)

Question 7

is the nth root of the product of a series of n numbers. It is a calculation to determine an average when the set of numbers covers a wide range.

Answer 7

Geometric Mean

Question 8

refers to subsurface water that occurs beneath a water table in soils and rocks, or in geological formations.

Answer 8

Groundwater

Question 9

means the set of all production units engaged primarily in the same or similar kinds of productive economic activity.

Answer 9

Industry

Question 10

refer to waters with salinity levels not less than 30 parts per thousand, at least 95 percent of the time.

Answer 10

Marine Waters

Question 11

are values that should not be exceeded at any point in time.

Answer 11

Maximum Allowable Limit

Question 12

refers to the amount of naturally occurring chemical substances derived/originating from natural processes in the environment.

Answer 12

Natural Background Concentration

Question 13

means the waters of the Philippines, including the territorial sea and inland waters suitable for water transport.

Answer 13

Navigable Waters

Question 14

means any identifiable source of pollution with specific point of discharge into a particular water body.

Answer 14

Point Source

Question 15

refers to any substance, whether solid, liquid, gaseous, or radioactive, which directly or indirectly:
(i) alters the quality of any segment of the receiving water body so as to affect or tend to affect adversely any beneficial use thereof;
(ii) is hazardous or potentially hazardous to health;
(iii) imparts objectionable odor, temperature change, or physical, chemical or biological change to any segment of the water body; or
(iv) is in excess of the allowable limits or concentrations or quality standards specified, or in contravention of the condition, limitation, or restriction prescribed in RA 9275.

Answer 15

Pollutant

Question 16

means water suitable (both health and acceptability considerations) for drinking and cooking purposes.

Answer 16

Potable Water

Question 17

refers to any form of recreation, where there is intimate contact of the human body with water, such as swimming, water skiing, or skin diving.

Answer 17

Primary Contact Recreation

Question 18

are the required minimum water quality parameters to be monitored for each water body.

Answer 18

Primary Parameters

Question 19

refers to a watercourse or a water body, or any segment thereof, that is classified as a source of public water supply, harvesting of shellfish for direct human consumption, or that which is designated by competent a government authority or by legislation as a national marine park and reserve, including coral reef park and reserve.

Answer 19

Protected Water

Question 20

refers to the water body into which surface water, wastewater, and effluent are discharged.

Answer 20

Receiving Water Body

Question 21

are other water quality parameters that shall be used in baseline assessments as part of the Environmental Impact Assessment and other water quality monitoring purposes.

Answer 21

Secondary Parameters

Question 22

means the Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Answer 22

Secretary

Question 23

are parameters specific to the processes of an establishment.

Answer 23

Significant Effluent Quality Parameters

Question 24

refers to wastewater whose initial Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) value before treatment is equal to or greater than 3,000 milligrams per liter (mg/L).

Answer 24

Strong Wastewater

Question 25

refer to waters (e.g. rivers, lakes, bays, etc.) which are open to the atmosphere and subject to surface runoff.

Answer 25

Surface Waters

Question 26

refers to any method, technique, or process designed to alter the physical, chemical, biological, or radiological character or composition of any waste or wastewater to reduce or prevent pollution.

Answer 26

Treatment

Question 27

means both natural and man-made bodies of fresh, brackish, and saline waters, and includes, but is not limited to, aquifers, groundwater, springs, creeks, streams, rivers, ponds, lagoons, water reservoirs, lakes, bays, estuarine, coastal and marine waters. Water bodies do not refer to those constructed, developed and used purposely as water treatment facilities and/or water storage for recycling and re-use, which are integral to process industry or manufacturing.

Answer 27

Water Body

Question 28

means any alteration of the physical, chemical, or biological or radiological properties of a water body resulting in the impairment of its purity or quality.

Answer 28

Water Pollution

Question 29

refer to the level for a water constituent or numerical values of physical, chemical, biological, and bacteriological or radiological parameters which are used to classify water resources and their use, which do not result in significant health risk. These are not intended for direct enforcement but only for water quality management purposes, such as determining time trends, evaluating stages of deterioration or enhancement of the water quality, and as basis for taking positive action in preventing, controlling, or abating water pollution.

Answer 29

Water Quality Guidelines (WQG)

Question 30

are certain areas designated using appropriate physiographic units (i.e., watershed, river basins, or water resources regions), having similar hydrological, hydrogeological, meteorological or geographic conditions which affect the physiochemical, biological, and bacteriological reactions and diffusions of pollutants in the water bodies, or otherwise share common interest or face similar development programs, prospects, or problems.

Answer 30

Water Quality Management Area (WQMA

Question 31

means that the sum of all values in one year divided by the number of values

Answer 31

Annual Average