National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) : National standards established by EPA that apply for outdoor air.
National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPS) : EPA emissions standards for an air pollutant not covered by NAAQS that may cause an increase in fatalities or in serious illness. Standards are designed to protect human health; secondary standards protect public welfare (e.g. building facades, visibility, crops, and domestic animals).
National Environmental Performance Partnership Agreements : A system that allows states to assume greater responsibility for environmental programs based on their relative ability.
National Estuary Program : A program established under the Clean Water Act Amendments of 1987 to develop conservation and management plans for protecting estuaries and restoring and maintaining their chemical and physical integrity.
National Municipal Plan : A policy created in 1984 by EPA and the states in 1984 to bring all publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) into compliance with Clean Water Act requirements.
National Oil and Hazardous Substances Contingency Plan (NOHSCP/NCP) : The federal regulation that determines which sites will be corrected under both the Superfund program and the program to prevent or control spills into surface waters.
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) : A provision of the Clean Water Act which prohibits discharge of pollutants into waters of the United States unless a special permit is issued by EPA, a state, or a tribal government on an Indian reservation.
National Priorities List (NPL) : EPA's list of the most serious uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites identified for possible long-term remedial action under Superfund. The list is based primarily on the score a site receives from the Hazard Ranking System. EPA is required to update the NPL at least once a year. A site must be on the NPL to receive money from the Trust Fund for remedial action.
National Response Center : The federal operations center that receives notifications of all releases of oil and hazardous substances into the environment; open 24 hours a day, it is operated by the U.S. Coast Guard.
National Response Team (NRT) : Representatives of 13 federal agencies that, as a team, coordinate federal responses to nationally significant incidents of pollution an oil spill, a major chemical release, or a Superfund response action-and provide advice and technical assistance before and during a response action.
Net Metering and Net Billing : Allows utility customers to generate their own electricity from renewable resources, such as small wind turbines and rooftop solar systems. The customers send excess electricity back to the utility when their wind system, for example, produces more power than needed. Customers can then get power from the utility when their wind system doesnt produce enough power. In effect net metering allows the interconnected customer to use the electrical grid as a storage battery. This helps customers get higher (retail) value for more of their self-generated electricity.
Nitrogen oxides : Harmful gases emitted as a byproduct of fossil fuel combustion.
Noise Pollution: Environmental pollution made up of harmful or annoying noise. The degree of pollution is usually measured as level of intensity, duration and frequency. Examples include cars, airplanes, construction equipment, and traffic noise.
Non-Renewable Resource : A resource incapable of being naturally restored or replenished. It is a resource whose supply is exhausted because it has not been replaced or because it is used faster than it can be replaced.
Nuclear Energy: Energy or power produced by nuclear reactions (fusion or fission).
Nuclear Reactor: An apparatus in which nuclear fission may be initiated, maintained, and controlled to produce energy, conduct research, or produce fissile material for nuclear explosives.
Nuclear Tests: Government tests carried out to supply information required for the design and improvement of nuclear weapons, and to study the phenomena and effects associated with nuclear explosions.
Nuclear Winter : Prediction that smoke and debris from massive fires of a nuclear war could block sunlight for weeks or months, cooling the earth's surface and producing climate changes that could negatively affect world agricultural and weather patterns.
Wilson Community College | P.O. Box 4305 • 902 Herring Avenue | Wilson, NC 27893 | Phone: (252) 291-1195 | Fax: (252) 243-7148