Navy Human Health Risk Assessment Web Site

Navy Risk Communication Web Site

Glossary

Select a letter from the list below to view other definitions.

A B C D E F G H I L M N O P R S T U V W

National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (= National Contingency Plan) (NCP)
The NCP calls for the identification and mitigation of environmental impacts (e.g., toxicity, bioaccumulation, death, reproductive or growth impairment, and loss of critical habitat) at hazardous waste sites and for the selection of remedial actions to protect the environment (EPA 1997).

National Priorities List (NPL)
The EPA's list of the most seriously uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites, identified as candidates for long-term action using money from the Superfund trust fund (EPA 1999).

Natural Attenuation
The natural process (i.e., unaided by man's intervention) by which a contaminant is reduced in concentration over time through absorption, adsorption, degradation, dilution, and/or transformation (ORNL 1999a).

Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA)
A process whereby a natural resource trustee may pursue compensation on behalf of the public for injury to natural resources resulting from releases of hazardous substances.

Natural Resource Damages (NRD)
The amount of money sought by a Natural Resource Trustee as compensation for injury, destruction, or loss of natural resources as defined in CERCLA. Damages include not only the cost of restoring injured resources to their baseline condition, but also compensation for the interim loss of injured resources pending recovery, and the reasonable cost of a damage assessment.

Natural Resource Trustee
Any Federal natural resource management agency designated in the NCP, any State agency designated by the Governor of each State, or an Indian Tribe, that may commence an action and prosecute claims for damages under CERCLA.

Natural Resources
Defined under CERCLA as land, fish, wildlife, biota, air, water, ground water, drinking water supplies, and other such resources belonging to, managed by, held in trust by, appertaining to, or otherwise controlled by the United States, any state or local government, any foreign government, any Indian tribe, or, if such resources are subject to a trust restriction on alienation, any member of an Indian tribe.

No Further Action (NFA) (= No Further Remedial Action Planned)
The determination made by EPA following a preliminary assessment that a site does not pose a significant risk, and thus requires no further activity under CERCLA (ORNL 1999a).

No-Observed-Adverse-Effects-Levels (NOAELs)
Highest exposure level of a contaminant that would not result in an adverse effect to a potential receptor species over a given time period.

Last Modified: 02/27/2003

This website complies with the Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards set forth in U.S. Section 508 of the 1998 Rehabilitation Act Amendments