Nitrite plus nitrate nitrogen. NO₂ + NO₃ is a measure of the two inorganic forms of nitrogen. Nitrate can enter waterways through fertilizer run-off, septic tank leaks, or effluent discharges. Nitrite (NO₂) is a reduced form of nitrate in the nitrogen cycle. Nitrite is generally short-lived in waterways because it is readily converted to nitrate (NO₃). NO₂ + NO₃ are measured in milligrams per liter.

Nitrogen. Nitrogen (N) is very common and found in many forms in the environment. Nitrogen, like phosphorus, is a nutrient which is utilized by plants and algae. Inorganic forms include nitrate (NO₃), nitrite (NO₂), ammonia (NH₃), and nitrogen gas (N₂). Organic nitrogen is found in the cells of all living things and is a component of proteins, peptides, and amino acids. Nitrogen is most abundant in Earth’s environment as N₂ gas, which makes up about 78 percent of the air we breathe. Nitrogen is measured in milligrams per liter. There are currently no IEPA water quality standards for nutrients, including phosphorus and nitrogen, except ammonia.

Non-point source pollution. Pollution that does not come from a single point or location.
OR, Pollution that originates from diffuse areas and unidentifiable sources, such as agriculture, the atmosphere, or ground water.
OR, Pollution generated by diffuse land use activities rather than from an identifiable or discrete facility. It is conveyed to waterways through natural processes, such as rainfall, storm runoff, or groundwater seepage rather than by deliberate discharge. Non-point source pollution is not generally corrected by “end-of-pipe” treatment, but rather, by changes in land management practices.
OR, A type of pollution discharged over a wide land area, not from one specific location. These are forms of diffuse pollution caused by organic and toxic substances originating from land-use activities, which aren’t carried to lakes and streams by surface runoff. Non-point source pollution is contamination that occurs when rainwater, snowmelt, or irrigation washes off plowed fields, city streets, or suburban backyards. As this runoff moves across the land surface, it picks up soil particles and pollutants, such as nutrients and pesticides.

Offal. Term for the entrails and internal organs of a butchered animal.

Oneota. Oneota is a designation archaeologists use, referring to a cultural complex that existed in the eastern plains and Great Lakes area of what is now the United States from around A.D. 900 to 1650 or 1700.

Organic oxidation. Decomposition of organic materials such as plant and animal matter.

Outwash. Stratified sand and gravel deposited in front of a glacier after being washed out by meltwater streams inside and on top of the glacier.

Parroquet. Any of numerous small slender long-tailed parrots.

Pendant bar. A type of “flood bar”, that is, an accumulation of sand and gravel deposited by flood waters in places where the current slows for various reasons. When the current slows because it is obstructed by an object in its path, such as bedrock, a pendant bar forms downstream from the object.

Periostitis . Inflammation of the periosteum, a dense membrane composed of fibrous tissue that closely wraps all bone. Periostitis is a secondary inflammation or infection that develops as a consequence of another disease such as severe anemia.

Pfisteria. A toxic dinoflagellate associated with fish lesions and fish kills. Pfisteria are usually single cell organisms with flagella - whip-like appendages - that assist in locomotion.

pH. pH is a measure of acidity and alkalinity of a solution that is a number on a scale on which a value of 7 represents neutrality, lower numbers indicate increasing acidity, and higher numbers indicate increasing alkalinity. Each unit of change represents a tenfold change in acidity. pH is measured in units. IEPA water quality standards require a pH measurement fall within the range of 6.5 to 9.0.

Photosynthesis. The process by which plants use energy in sunlight to convert water and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates and oxygen.

Phylogenetic. Pertaining to the evolutionary history of a particular group of organisms.

Plankton. General term applied to microscopic aquatic organisms that float in the water and are transported by the water current. Phytoplankton are photosynthetic plants, algae, and diatoms; they are considered to be the base of the food chain. Feeding on the phytoplankton are zooplankton (protozoa, bacteria, and macrozooplankton, which are larger-sized forms like fish eggs, invertebrates, larvae). Plankton are indicators of the health of the habitat in which they are found.

Pleistocene. The name given by geologists to the geological time period that occurred between 1.8 million years ago and today. The Quaternary is comprised of two different epochs, the Pleistocene Epoch and the Holocene Epoch. The Pleistocene is the oldest, occurring 1.8 million years ago to 12,000 years ago. The Pleistocene is also called the “Great Ice Age” because glaciers covered large areas of North America during that time. The Holocene is the most recent epoch. It began about 12,000 years ago and is still on going. In other words, we are in the Holocene today.

Plummet. A teardrop-shaped ground stone tool, usually with a groove around its neck (the narrow end). Native Americans used plummets as weights tied to nets or lines for fishing and attached to a long line of cordage, or tied in a small pouch attached to the cordage, and used a bola for hunting birds and small animals.

Quaternary. The second period of the Cenozoic era (following the Tertiary) that began two to three million years ago and extends to the present. It consists of two grossly unequal epochs: The Pleistocene, up to about 10,000 years ago, and the Holocene since that time.

Reapers. Machines that harvest grain. Initially grain was harvested by hand. In 1834 Cyrus McCormick patented the mechanical reaper, pulled by horses, that allowed farmers to harvest grain more quickly and in greater quantity. Later, steam-powered and gasoline-powered engines were used to power the reapers.

Rickets. A bone disease caused by a deficiency of vitamin D, calcium, or phosphate in one’s diet, which results in softened bones and weakened bone structure; it usually affects young children up to 2 years of age but is also found in carp, an invasive fish species in Illinois.

Riparian. Of or pertaining to the bank of a river or stream. So, riparian owners are those who own land along the river, including the riverbank out to the middle of the stream.

Riverine. Of or pertaining to a river.

Sanitary and Ship Canal. A 28 mile long canal constructed between 1892 and 1900. It was built as a solution to the ever-increasing problem of poor sanitation in 19th century Chicago, a time when sewage was dumped directly (without treatment) into Lake Michigan and into the Chicago River (that flowed into Lake Michigan). Because Lake Michigan was the source of the Chicago’s drinking water, citizens drank polluted water that spread contagious diseases in epidemic proportions: cholera, typhoid, polio, and dysentery killed thousands of citizens. In this monumental feat of civil engineering, locks were built to reverse the natural flow of the Chicago River to prevent its water from entering the Lake Michigan, and the lake water was used to flush Chicago River sewage westward to the Illinois River. This environmental catastrophe continued for 30 years until the United States Supreme Court ordered Chicago to reduce the amount of water diverted from Lake Michigan and to build an adequate sewage treatment system.

Scour. A geological term for a place on the landscape that was scarred or eroded as a result of being scraped, ground, and abraded by the movement of rushing waters or by the movement of glacial ice.

Sedimentation. Depositing of soils by water or erosion. Sedimentation is a problem if it occurs at a rate greater than normal (faster, more frequently, or in greater amounts than usual).

Sheet erosion. A type of erosion in which sediment, sand, or gravel is transported down a slope by water. Also called slope-wash, this type of erosion can result in mass wasting of a slope.

Shoreline erosion. The process by which soil particles located on or along riverbanks or lakeshores become detached and transported by water currents or wave energy.

Siltation. The filling-in of lakes and stream channels with soil particles, usually as a result of erosion on adjacent land. Also called “sedimentation.”
OR, The accumulation of sediments transported by water, the deposition of finely divided soil and rock particles on the bottom of stream and river beds and lakes and reservoirs.

Slumping. The collapse of a surface portion of a mound or other earthen structure due to instability of the soil or the presence of an internal chamber, the roof or walls of which collapse.

Strawboard. A manufactured, straw-based product used as a substitute for wood. Unlike manufactured wood products (such as particle board, oriented strand board, and fiberboard), strawboard weighs less and most importantly, the adhesive holding the straw particles together does not contain formaldehyde.

Technology. The sum of the ways in which social groups provide themselves with the material objects of their civilization. The tools, techniques, and know-how used by a person or a group of people such as Paleoindians and Indians of the Archaic Period to accomplish a task or to carry out their cultural lifeways. Stone tool manufacture is one type of technology, pottery making is another, and the manufacture and use of tools by Woodland farmers is a third.
During the Colonial period (after AD 1673), and especially from the 1800s onward, the pace of technological development increases markedly to include things such as steamboats, farm machinery, factory machinery in slaughterhouses and to process feed for animals, shell button cutting machines, dredges to deepen the Illinois River to lessen the effects of sedimentation, axes, saws, and eventually chain saws, sawmills, machines to build canals, barges and tugboats, and lock and dam systems.

Temper. A material such as shell, grit, or limestone that is added to clay used for pottery manufacture to make it adhere better and reduce the pottery vessel cracking during the drying and firing processes.

Temperature. Temperature is the measure of the degree of heat or coolness of a substance. IEPA water quality standard: temperatures cannot exceed the maximum limits in the table below more than 1% of the hours in a 12 month period; at no time shall the water temperature at such locations exceed the maximum limits in the following table by more than 1.7°C (3°F).

	°C	°F		°C	°F
JAN	16	60	JUL	32	90
FEB	16	60	AUG	32	90
MAR	16	60	SEP	32	90
APR	32	90	OCT	32	90
MAY	32	90	NOV	32	90
JUN	32	90	DEC	16	60

Ticona valley fill. The Ticona Valley is the buried channel of an ancient river in north-central Illinois that joined the ancient (pre-glacial) Mississippi River. The palaeochannel was created by erosion of bedrock during the Illinoian glaciation (the glacial period that preceded the Wisconsin some 200,000 years ago). The channel is filled with Illinoian-aged deposits overlain by Wisconsin-aged deposits. The fill deposits are mostly sand and gravel. The Illinois River Valley was formed much later, about 17,000 years ago but its channel intersects the ancient Ticona Valley in some places and parallels it in others.

Till. Unsorted and unstratified debris made up of rocks of many different sizes (called “particle size”) deposited underneath a glacier.

Total Kjedahl nitrogen. TKN is the sum of organic nitrogen and ammonia in a water body. TKN is measured in milligrams per liter. There are currently no IEPA water quality standards for TKN.

Total mercury. Total mercury is the mercury found in water. Most of the mercury in water, soil, sediments, or plants and animals is in the form of inorganic mercury salts and organic forms of mercury (e.g., methylmercury). Inorganic mercury is less efficiently absorbed and more readily eliminated from the body than methylmercury and does not tend to bioaccumulate. Total mercury is measured in milligrams per liter. Measurements that exceed the following violate IEPA water quality standards:
Secondary contact waterways - 0.5 ug/l (or 0.0005 mg/l)
General use waterways - 0.12 ug/l (or 0.000012 mg/l)

Total nitrogen. TN is the measurement of all nitrogen in the sample (inorganic and organic). It is calculated by adding the lab results for TKN, NO₂, and NO₃. TN is measured in milligrams per liter. There are currently no IEPA water quality standards for TN.

Total phosphorus. TP is the total concentration of phosphorus found in the water. Phosphorus is a nutrient and acts as a fertilizer, increasing the growth of plant life such as algae. There are no water quality standards for phosphorus levels in streams; although there are effluent standards which apply to treated wastewater that is discharged into streams. TP is measured in milligrams per liter.

Total suspended solids. TSS are the total solids suspended in water including a wide variety of material such as silt, decaying plant matter, industrial wastes and sewage. TSS is measured in milligrams per liter.

Turbidity. A measure of water clarity. Water can be cloudy due to materials suspended in the water. Inorganic materials include sediment, and organic materials include plant debris, algae, and phytoplankton.

Typhoid. A disease caused by a kind of bacterium called Salmonella typhi; because it is “communicable’, (meaning that it can be passed from one person to another) it can affect large segments of a population. Typhoid epidemics, killing thousands of people, broke out in Chicago in the 1800s caused by widespread, poor sanitary conditions and polluted drinking water. The bacterium passes into the walls of the intestine. When the immune system cannot fight the infection, the bacterium spreads to the bloodstream causing a fever; it can continue to spread to the liver and bone marrow. Typhoid fever still occurs today (mainly in poor countries), but antibiotics can treat it, and a vaccine can help prevent it.

T-value. The average annual tons of soil loss per acre a given soil may experience and still maintain its productivity over an extended period.

Voyageur. Early French explorer.

Watershed. The entire area of land whose water drains into a particular body of water, such as the Illinois River; a watershed is also called a river basin, catchment basin, or, just a catchment.

Weir. A small dam in a river or stream. Usually, made from rocks or a latticework of poles and sticks, a weir serves to channel fish into an enclosure where they are speared, netted, or grabbed by hand.

Wind fetch. The distance over which the wind blows.

Wing dam. A structure built outward from the shoreline into a river. Its function is to be a barrier that narrows the channel and increases the water current. It keeps water in the main channel by preventing water from cutting across a low bank or a sand bar.

ybp. Years before present.

Zoning. The division of a city or a county organized by legislative regulations into areas (zones), specifying the uses allowable for the real property in these areas; or, laws passed by local governments regulating the size, type, structure, nature and use of land or buildings.