303(d) listed waterbody: The Clean Water Act, in Section 303(d), requires states to identify and prioritize waterbodies that are impaired or threatened by pollution. A state compiles these water bodies and their pollutants in a 303(d) list of impaired waters.

319(h) grant: Congress amended the Clean Water Act (CWA) in 1987 to establish the section 319 Nonpoint Source Management Program to provide federal leadership for state and local nonpoint source pollution efforts. Under section 319 states receive grant money, which support a wide variety of activities related to reducing nonpoint source pollution.

Algal growth: caused by excess nitrogen and phosphorus in surface runoff due to excess fertilizer or wastewater treatment plant discharge.

Eutrophication: - A process where streams or lakes receive excess nutrients that stimulate an overgrowth of vegetation, such as algae. This enhanced plant growth is often called an algal bloom. When the excess algae die and decay, the dissolved oxygen in the water is reduced and can cause harm to other organisms, such as fish kills. The extra nutrients, primarily phosphorus and nitrogen, come from many human sources. The nutrients come from fertilizers applied to agricultural fields, golf courses, and lawns; deposition of nitrogen from the atmosphere; erosion of soil containing nutrients; and sewage treatment plant discharges.

Low dissolved oxygen/organic enrichment: dissolved oxygen is required for a healthy aquatic ecosystem because fish and aquatic organisms require oxygen to survive. Low oxygen is caused by the introduction of large quantities of biodegradable organic materials, or organic enrichment (such as livestock waste or runoff from faulty septic systems), into the water. This reduces the amount of available oxygen to fish and aquatic organisms. If a water body has excessive algal growth associated with nutrient enrichment, dissolved oxygen will be depleted from the water when the plant material dies and decays.

Macroinvertebrates: Invertebrate animals that are visible to the eye. Freshwater macroinvertebrates include aquatic insects, worms, clams, snails, and crustaceans. They are widely used in biomonitoring programs for assessing water quality because they are abundant and also very sensitive to environmental impacts.

Nonpoint source pollutants: Non-point source (NPS) pollution occurs when water runs over land or through the ground, picks up pollutants, and deposits them in surface waters (such as lakes, rivers, or the reservoir) or introduces them into groundwater (your well, for example). Pollutants may include fertilizer (nutrients), pesticides, oil and grease from parking lots and highway runoff, sediment from erosion, acid drainage from mining, and bacteria and nutrients from livestock waste and faulty septic systems.

Nutrients: Compounds such as phosphorus and nitrogen in the form of fertilizers, manure, sludge, irrigation water, and crop residues are applied to the soil to enhance agricultural production. When they are applied in excess of plant needs, nutrients can wash into aquatic ecosystems where they can cause excessive plant (or algal) growth, create a foul taste and odor in drinking water, and even lead to fish kills.

Riparian Buffers: - Bands of vegetation (grass, trees, shrubs, or combinations) that border streams or rivers. As the name buffer implies, a riparian buffer acts as a guard between an aquatic environment and a land area, whether the land is a residential area, development, forest, farm, or natural area.

Watershed: -A watershed is all the area upstream or up-gradient of a point on the land; it is the point to which all that land drains. The watershed also includes all the water that drains downward under the ground. So, water is stored and flows through our watershed as groundwater as well. Normally, watersheds are fairly easy to visualize, as the mountain or hill ridgelines form their upper-most boundary.

Watershed Plan: Watershed plans are a means to resolve and prevent water quality problems that result from both point source and nonpoint source problems. Watershed plans are intended to provide both an analytic framework to restore water quality in impaired waters and to protect water quality in other waters adversely affected or threatened by point source and nonpoint source pollution.

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