Waste

Any materials that are left over from biological or other systems that have no value, so they can be disposed of as trash or recycled for some new use.

Wastewater

Water that carries wastes from homes, businesses, and industries. It is usually a mixture of water and dissolved or suspended solids.

Wastewater treatment plant

A facility containing a series of tanks, screens, filters, and other processes by which pollutants are removed from water.

Water Quality

A term used to describe the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water with respect to its suitability for a particular use.

Water table

In a shallow aquifer, a water table is the depth at which free water is first encountered in a monitoring well.

Weather

Atmospheric condition at any given time or place. It is measured in terms of such things as wind, temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, cloudiness, and precipitation. In most places, weather can change from hour-to-hour, day-to-day, and season-to-season. Climate in a narrow sense is usually defined as the "average weather", or more rigorously, as the statistical description in terms of the mean and variability of relevant quantities over a period of time ranging from months to thousands or millions of years. The classical period is 30 years, as defined by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). These quantities are most often surface variables such as temperature, precipitation, and wind. Climate in a wider sense is the state, including a statistical description, of the climate system. A simple way of remembering the difference is that climate is what you expect (e.g. cold winters) and 'weather' is what you get (e.g. a blizzard).

Wetlands

Lands where water saturation is the dominant factor that determines the nature of soil development and the types of plant and animal communities living in the surrounding environment. Other common names for wetlands are bogs, ponds, estuaries and marshes.

Wilderness

Land remaining in basically wild (i.e., undisturbed) condition, with few if any traces of human activities.

Wildlife

A collective term embracing thousands of different species of mammals, birds, reptiles and insects. Also includes the broader sense of the natural environment such as bacteria, fungi and plants.

Windpower

Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity. Wind power involves converting wind energy into electricity by using wind turbines. Wind turbines harness the power of the wind and use it to generate electricity. Wind power is a type of clean energy derived from wind. The terms "wind energy" or "wind power" describe the process by which the wind is used to generate mechanical power or electricity.