Biogas, landfill gas: all gases, such as methane and carbon dioxide, resulting from fermentation of landfilled waste in the absence of air.
Chemical water treatment: service provided industrial customers enabling them to select, apply and control on a day-to-day basis chemicals to ensure industrial process water purity and quality.
Class 1 storage center: under French environmental regulations, a class 1 center is a landfill specialized in the storage of hazardous industrial waste and residual waste products such as mineral wastes or fly ash from waste incineration.
Composting: in the presence of water and oxygen, the transformation by micro-organisms (microscopic fungi, bacteria, etc.) or organic waste into a humus-like product.
Delegated management: c.f. Public-private partnership (PPP).
Desalination: process by which the concentration of salt in water is reduced to render it fit for human and animal consumption as well as for other uses, such as industrial.
Dioxin: very toxic chemical compound resulting from the combustion of organic matter. There are 210 types of dioxin, 17 of which are considered harmful.
DNA chip: a proprietary technique for analyzing drinking water using cutting-edge DNA chip technology. More accurate, faster and cheaper than current quality control techniques, the DNA chip offers consumers even more effective water quality control.
Drinking water supply: equipment, services, and activities that, starting with raw water, produce water that complies with applicable water quality standards and is then distributed to consumers. The process consists of four distinct steps: intake/catchment, treatment to make water drinkable, conveyance (transportation/storage), and distribution to the consumer.
Effluent: general designation of any fluid produced by a pollution source, whether from populated areas or industrial facilities.
Environmental analysis: a thorough analysis of environment-related problems, impacts, and results arising from activities at a site.
Incinerator: a facility designed to burn waste and subject to authorization. More and more now recover waste in the form of electricity or thermal energy. The by-products (bottom ash and fly ash) are processed with a view to controlling the impacts of this activity on both persons and the environment.
Public-private partnership (PPP): a contractual arrangement adapted to each local situation by which the public sector authority assigns certain missions to a private operator and specifies objectives. The public sector partner retains regulatory control and owner-ship of the infrastructure, as opposed to privatizations which are based on the transfer of ownership of the infrastructure assets. Local government authorities are increasingly relying upon PPP arrangements for managing water services.
Recovery: a generic term encompassing the re-employment, reuse, recycling or regeneration of waste. Among the various types of energy recovery are:
waste-to-energy recovery: recovery of calories contained in incinerated waste, allowing thermal or electric energy production;
physical recovery: waste treatment enabling reuse, re-employment,or recycling (e.g. waste originating from selective collection and recycling, bottom ash used for roadbeds);
biological recovery: an organic waste processing technique using composting or methanization techniques.
Recycling: the direct re-introduction of a waste type into the production cycle from which it originates as a total or partial replacement for new material.
Regulated utilities market: market in which local public agencies are not responsible for providing drinking water or sanitation services. Private companies are therefore licensed or franchised to provide such services, in which case they become owners of the facilities, utility rates being fixed by a regulating agency. This is the basis on which the U.S. public utilities market operates.
Sanitation: wastewater and rainwater collection, transportation, and treatment techniques used together by a populated area, industrial site, or private parcel before discharge into the natural environment. Sanitation includes the disposal of sludge resulting from the wastewater treatment process.
Treated sewage sludge: a mixture of water and solids sepa-rated from various types of water as a result of biological or physical processes.
Ultrafiltration: an advanced water treatment technique involving the filtration of water via membranes with pores that are some 10,000 times smaller than those of human skin. By removing all particles of a size greater than 0.01 microns (pollen, algae, parasites, bacteria, viruses, germs and cysts), it enables the production of ultra-pure water.
Voluntary separation: any collection which separates certain types of waste (for example packaging, glass, paper), with a view to their recovery.
Waste : Domestic waste (DW): waste resulting from household consumption and processed by traditional collection or voluntary separation methods.
Non-hazardous industrial waste (NHIW): waste not of householdorigin arising from industrial or commercial activity, non-toxic in nature.
Hazardous industrial waste (HIW): dangerous industrial waste materials requiring special handling during processing to protect the environment.
Medical waste: waste resulting from medical activity, including hospital waste.
Waste-to-energy recovery unit: waste incineration plant that recovers calories contained in incinerated waste to provide thermal energy for urban heating, steam for industry and/or electricity.
Water quality control: drinking water is the most carefully controlled comestible in the world. U.S., European, and World Health Organization reference standards require water operators to conduct tests for dozens of chemical, physical and bacteriological parameters to ensure good quality water.
Wet process treatment of liquid effluents: a treatment process for liquid sludge whereby sludge is injected with oxygen to mineralise its organic matter. The mineral residue thus obtained meets accepted standards for landfilling. Wet process treatment of liquid effluents offers an innovative alternative to traditional solutions such as coincineration or incineration.
