City & County of Honolulu Department of Environmental Services

Glossary

Glossary

	Ahupua`a: An "Ahupua`a" is the Hawaiian word that comes closest to the meaning of watershed. The Hawaiians were masters of land and resource management through their concept of the ahupua`a land division- a division that starts at the source (top of the mountain, or mauka) and ends at the sea, or makai. The Ahupua`a limit is the reef. The near shore waters were an important food source. Some ahupua`a principles that may be transferred to watershed planning and management include access to a complete resource base, reverence for water, respect for all living things, coordination and cooperation, intergenerational learning, `ohana among people, and the connection between people and the land.

	Aquatic biota: The flora and fauna living in the water.

Silt Fence Retention Basin Debris Basin Boom Spill Kit	Best Management Practices or BMPs: An engineered structure, management activity, or a combination, that eliminates or reduces an adverse environmental effect of a pollutant.

	Biodegradable: Capable of being decomposed (broken down) by natural biological processes.

Outside Inside	Catch basin: Curbside opening that collects rainwater from streets and serves as an entry point to the storm drain system. With more than 20,000 catch basins and over 670 miles of storm drains to clean and maintain, the City and County of Honolulu needs your help to stop pollutants from entering the storm drain system.

	Channelization: The straightening and/or surfacing of streams to permit water to move rapidly and/or directly downstream.

	Culvert: Concrete or corrugated steel drainage pipes used to convey water under structures such as roads, highways, or bridges.

	Detention basin: Reservoir designed to reduce or slow the rate of flow in an open drainage facility. DETENTION is the temporary storage of excess storm water. Unlike a detention basin, a retention basin does not have outlets for releasing the flows; the water must be disposed by draining into the soil, evaporation, or pumping.

	Discharge: Deposit, disposal, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking or placing of any substance into a drainage facility or natural watercourse.

	Engineering Control Facility: Any drainage device such as a basin, well, pond, ditch, dam, or excavation used for the temporary or permanent storage of storm water by means of detention, retention, divergence, or infiltration for the purpose of reducing storm water volume and/or peak storm discharge flows, and which may provide gravity settling of particulate pollutants. It includes but is not limited to detention ponds, retention ponds, infiltration wells or ditches, holding tanks, diversion ditches or swales, drainpipes, check dams, and debris basins.

	Erosion: Wearing away of the ground surface as a result of action by wind and/or water.

	Estuary: Body of water at the lower end of a river and which is connected to the ocean or semi-enclosed by land. In an estuary, sea water is measurably diluted by fresh water from the land. A coastal region of convergence or interaction between rivers and nearshore ocean waters where tidal action and river flow create a mixing of fresh water and salt water. These areas may include streams and marshes. Pouhala Marsh isone example. The Ala Wai Canal is an artificial estuary.

	"Federal act," "act," or the Federal Water Pollution Control Act: Refers to PL 92-500, also known as the Clean Water Act, and amendments thereto, 33 U.S.C. 1251, et seq., as well as regulations and standards promulgated by the EPA.

	"First Flush": The first big rain after an extended dry period that flushes out the accumulated pollutants in the storm drain system and carries them straight to the ocean.

	Floatables: Pollutants that float on the water surface such as trash and debris.

	Geographic Information System (GIS): A computer and software system that links spatial or locational information with descriptive information.

	Grassed Swales: An infiltration/filtration method that is usually used to provide pretreatment before runoff is discharged to treatment systems. Grassed swales are typically shallow, vegetated, man-made ditches designed so that the bottom elevation is above the water table to allow runoff to infiltrate into ground water. The vegetation or turf prevents erosion, filters sediment, and provides some nutrient uptake (USDA-SCS, 1988). Grassed swales can also serve as conveyance systems for urban runoff and provide similar benefits.

Good Bad	Gutter: The edge of a street (below the curb) designed to drain water runoff from streets, driveways, parking lots, etc. into catch basins. An area formed by the curb and the street to prevent flooding by channeling runoff to the storm drains.

	Heavy metals: Naturally occurring metal elements including cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, arsenic, nickel, etc. Can also be found in sewage sludge and urban runoff. Many are toxic at low concentrations and tend to accumulate in the food chain.

	Household Hazardous Waste: Common everyday products that people use in and around their homes-including paint, paint thinner, herbicides, and pesticides, due to their chemical nature, can be hazardous if not properly disposed.

	Illegal discharge: Any nonpermitted disposal into the storm drain system for which a person or business does not have a permit. More information at http://www.honolulu.gov/refs/roh/14a10_19.htm

	Impervious surface: Paved surface or other land cover that does not allow water to percolate into the ground.

	Introduced aquatic life: Species of aquatic organisms that are not native to a given area or water body and whose populations were established (deliberately or accidentally) by human activity. Introduced organisms are also referred to as "alien" or "exotic". Top: Long-fin armored catfish; bottom: Suckermouth catfish. Yamamoto, Mike N. and Annette Tagawa. 2000. Hawaii's Native and Exotic Freshwater Animals.

	National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit: Permit issued by the Environmental Protection Agency or the Hawaii Department of Health pursuant to Title 40, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 122, Subpart B, Section 122.26(a)(1)(ii), for construction activity including clearing, grading and excavation activities; or a permit issued to a permittee pursuant to Hawaii Administrative Rules, Chapter 11-55, Water Pollution Control, for construction dewatering activity; or a permit issued to the city pursuant to Title 40, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 122, Subpart B, Section 122.26(a)(1)(iii), for storm water discharges from the city's separate storm sewer systems.

	Nonpoint Source Pollution: Pollution that does not come from a single, identifiable point but from a number of points that are spread out and difficult to identify and control. Includes materials that wash from roofs, streets, yards, driveways, sidewalks as well as from agriculture, erosion, and construction. Collectively, this is the largest source of stormwater pollution.

	O'opu. Mascot of the City and County of Honolulu Department of Environmental Services. Hawai'i 's streams are home to these unique fish. There are five species of native stream fish (four gobies and an eleotrid). Four are endemic (found nowhere else on earth) and one is indigenous (native to Hawai'i and other locations). Their distribution along the stream is believed to be influenced by their climbing ability. The origin of the o`opu and link to the ocean are evident in their mainly diadromous life cycle, which means "two runs", one to the ocean as newly hatched larvae and subsequent return from the ocean to freshwater as juveniles. This completes their life cycle and emphasizes the importance of maintaining the "mauka (mountain) to makai (ocean)" connection. O 'opu are recommended for use as a biological indicator of stream water quality. For example, an increase in numbers of the o ' opu would indicate improved water quality. The reason for this is that o'opu require fresh, cool, flowing water of good quality. More info and photos located here.

	Organic compound: Naturally occurring (animal or plant-produced or synthetic) substances containing mainly carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen.

	Outfall: Opening at the end of a storm drain system that allows water to flow into a channel, lake, river, bay or ocean.

	Plume: A visible or measurable discharge of a contaminant from a given point of origin. Can be visible, sediment, or invisible, such as thermal in water, or visible in the air as, for example, a plume of smoke.

	Point Source Pollution: Pollution from a single identifiable source such as a smoke stack or sewage treatment plant. Most of this pollution is highly regulated at the state and local levels.

	Pollutants: Any waste, cooking or fuel oil, waste milk, waste juice, pesticide, paint, solvent, radioactive waste, hazardous substance, sewage, dredged spoils, chemical waste, rock, sand, biocide, toxic substance, construction waste and material, and soil sediment. The term also includes commercial FOG waste as defined under the Revised Ordinances of Honolulu (ROH) Section 14-5A.1. For more information, go to http://www.honolulu.gov/refs/roh/14a10_19.htm.

	Pollution problem The discharge of any pollutant into state waters directly or by conveyance through a drainage facility that creates a nuisance or adversely affects the public health, safety or welfare, or causes a drainage facility to violate any provisions of the City's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit or violates any water quality standards of the State of Hawaii.

	Retention Basin: Stores storm water, but on a more permanent basis. In fact, water often remains in a retention basin indefinitely, with the exception of the volume lost to evaporation, absorbed into soils, or pumped out. This differs greatly from a detention basin, which typically drains after the peak of the storm flow has passed, sometimes while it is still raining. DETENTION is the temporary storage of excess storm water. Unlike a detention basin, a retention basin does not have outlets for releasing the flows. The water must be disposed by draining into the soil, evaporation, or pumping systems.

	Riparian: Areas adjacent to rivers and streams with a differing density, diversity, and productivity of plant and animal species relative to nearby uplands.

	Runoff: (Also known as Urban Runoff) Water that flows over land surfaces and does not percolate into the ground. See also "Runoff Pollution" below.

	Runoff pollution: Water from rain (also called stormwater, urban runoff, and storm drain pollution), irrigation, garden hoses or other activities that picks up pollutants (cigarette butts, trash, automotive fluids, used oil, paint, fertilizers and pesticides, lawn and garden clippings and pet waste) from streets, parking lots, driveways and yards and carries them through the storm drain system and straight to the ocean.

	Sedimentation: The deposition or accumulation of sediment.

	Sewer system: The drainage conveyance that takes wastewater from home plumbing systems (toilets, showers, sinks, washers, etc) to a sanitary sewer plant.

	Source control: Reducing the amount of materials entering the waste stream from a specific source. Action to prevent pollution at its origin. Examples include roofs over oil drums, pallets for liquids, etc.

	Storm drain system: A network of conveyance systems that includes roads, gutters, catch basins, grates, underground pipes, streams or open channels designed to transport rain from developed areas and discharged to a receiving body of water. Storm drains can carry a variety of pollutants such as sediments, fecal waste, metals, bacteria, oil, and antifreeze that enter the system through runoff, deliberate dumping, or spills.

	Stream: Natural waterway originating from underground springs, runoff or other natural sources which drains to streams, channels or the ocean. More info at http://www.hawaii.gov/dlnr/dar/streams/index.htm.

	Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL): A numerical quantification of the pollutant loading that can be received by a water body from all sources without exceeding state water quality standards. The TMDL consists of wasteload allocations for point source (e.g., industrial and municipal discharge), load allocations for non-point sources (e.g., agriculture, construction) and a margin of safety so that any additional loading, regardless of source, would not produce a violation of water quality standards. More info at http://www.hawaii.gov/health/environmental/env-planning/wqm/wqm.html.

	Watershed: Geographic area of land from which all runoff drains into a single waterway or the total land area from which rain water drains into a particular stream, drain, or body of water. For example, Makiki, Manoa, and Palolo are the three streams that drain to Mamala Bay, stretching from Diamond Head to Barber's Point along the southern coast of O`ahu, via the Ala Wai Canal.

	Wetland: An area possessing three essential characteristics: (1) Hydrophytic vegetation (or hydrophytes means plants adopted to growing in seasonally or permanently flood condtions), (2) Hydric soils (soil that is, in its undrained conditions, saturated, flooded, or ponded; and (3) Wetland hydrology, as defined in the Corps of Engineers Wetlands Delineation Manual. (January 1987). Wetlands also include ponds and mudflats, which while possessing hydric soils and wetland hydrology, may not have the commonly required hydrophytic vegetation. The largest remaining wetland in Hawaii is Kawainui Marsh, Kailua, Oahu. To the left is Pouhala Marsh, Waipahu, Oahu.