Environmental Scientist Practice Test

These questions are part of the practice quiz. Start practicing

• Which of the following best describes the EPA brownfields count?
• Which of the following is NOT a primary goal of the Clean Water Act?
• Exposure information for chemicals, biologicals, radiation, and climate-related changes is provided by which of the following organizations?
• Which statement about comprehensive watershed plans is true?
• Which list is associated with non-specific sources of waste?
• According to the EPA, there are presently over ______ brownfields in the United States, but this number only includes sites for which an Environmental Site Assessment has been conducted.
• SIP stands for what in the Clean Air Act context?
• Methyl bromide is widely used as a fumigant in which contexts?
• Indoor Air Quality can be improved, in decreasing order of effectiveness, by
• The Clean Air Act was originally passed in which year?
• The 100-year flood plain is defined as an area with what annual probability of flooding?
• What are used in aerosol products, as sterilants of medical equipment, and in a range of miscellaneous applications including food freezing, tobacco expansion, fumigation and cancer therapy?
• In risk assessment, what is problem formulation and what are its primary outputs?
• HCFCs are Class ___ ODS's and CFCs are Class ____ ODS's.
• Explain the purpose and key elements of a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit under the Clean Water Act.
• The F-List of hazardous wastes are from ______
• What is the ideal scale for managing wetlands and other natural areas?
• RCRA establishes the framework for a national system of solid waste control. Subtitle _____ of the Act is dedicated to non-hazardous solid waste requirements, and Subtitle ______ focuses on hazardous solid waste.
• Distinguish technology-based limits from water quality-based limits in NPDES permitting and describe how final permit limits are determined.
• Which statement best explains why conservative assumptions are used in risk assessment when data are uncertain?
• Which international treaty addresses ozone-depleting substances?
• The EPA often uses biosolids and sewage sludge interchangeably.
• An example of applying a conservative assumption in risk assessment is to use upper-bound exposure or high-end toxicity values when data are uncertain. Which statement reflects this approach?
• MS4 stands for Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System.
• NAAQS stands for National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
• Which term refers to the solids separated during municipal wastewater treatment?
• States have to develop what to outline how they will control air pollution under the Clean Air Act?
• Class I sludge management facilities are POTWs with design flow rate equal to or greater than one million gallons per day, and POTWs that serve 10,000 people or more. What class designation applies to these facilities?
• Which is the first step listed among the main key steps in watershed management?
• Why are BAF and BCF important for ecological risk assessment?
• Which subtitle addresses hazardous waste?
• What are ‘fugitive emissions’ and why are they important for regulatory compliance in industrial facilities?
• What is climate risk assessment and how is it integrated into environmental planning and resilience strategies?
• Under the authority of §311 of the Clean Water Act, the Oil Pollution Prevention regulation was originally published in what year?
• How many wastes are listed on the F-list?
• What does RCRA stand for?
• Which GIS analysis is specifically used to identify areas with unusually high concentrations of a pollutant?
• The K-List of wastes are those that are from ______
• A Facility Response Plan (FRP) demonstrates a facility's preparedness to respond to a worst case oil discharge.
• When did the EPA publish the Ground Water Rule in the Federal Register?
• What is the purpose of field blanks in a QA/QC program for environmental sampling?
• The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act was passed in _____
• Which statement about the F-List is true?
• Which are the four characteristic wastes and their associated waste codes?
• Lead-based paint ban year (federal government)?
• Are U-List wastes all toxic?
• Tropospheric aerosols have a _____ effect at the surface and can lead to _____ in the troposphere.
• In EPA ecological risk assessment, Phase 2 is characterized by which activity?
• The full record of all 39 wastes on the F-list can be found under 40 CFR ______
• Which act supports the use of deep geologic repositories for the safe storage and disposal of radioactive waste?
• The process EPA uses for evaluating the potential for health and ecological effects of a pesticide is called
• The Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) is a program of which U.S. federal agency?
• How do Data Quality Objectives influence the design of an environmental monitoring program?
• Green chemistry is also known as sustainable chemistry.
• Which of the following is NOT one of the four negative heat island impacts?
• Halon that has seen widespread use in fixed systems throughout the industrial, commercial, marine, defence, and aviation industries is which?
• To prevent indoor mold growth, focus on controlling which condition?
• Which item is NOT a typical step in groundwater sampling for chemical analysis?
• What is the primary purpose of a reconnaissance site visit during Phase I ESA?
• Which statement correctly distinguishes in-situ remediation from ex-situ remediation, with an appropriate scenario for each?
• Which statement best describes indoor mold control?
• Describe how isotopic fingerprinting can be used for source attribution in environmental forensics and provide a basic example.
• What is the purpose of a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) and what are its typical components?
• Which EPA database summarizes available toxicity data and contains EPA's assessment of how the general public may be exposed to individual chemicals?
• Which technique is a classic example of an ex-situ remediation method?
• Differentiate between concentration-based and load-based permit limits and provide a scenario for using each.
• Which statement best describes the Toxic Substances Control Act regulation of new and existing chemicals?
• Which regulation requires that each manufacturer register each pesticide and its label with the EPA before it can be manufactured for commercial use?
• Which Halon has primarily been used in the defence, industrial, marine and aviation sector in some countries?
• What is the appropriate regulatory response when a fugitive emission leak is detected at an industrial facility?
• Define a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) and explain its role in watershed water quality improvement.
• Which term describes the system that collects wastewater from homes, commercial buildings, and industrial facilities and transports it to a treatment plant?
• Which statement best defines source reduction in the context of green chemistry?
• Differentiate between water quality-based effluent limits (WQBELs) and toxicity-based effluent limits (e.g., Whole Effluent Toxicity, WET) and how they influence permit development.
• Which statement correctly describes SARA?
• Which statement about grab sampling and composite sampling best describes their use?
• Which Halon has been widely used in portable extinguishers?
• In environmental consulting, which practice demonstrates commitment to independence and objectivity?
• Why are erosion and sediment control BMPs critical during construction, and name two effective measures.
• What does POTW stand for?
• Define bioavailability and explain why it matters in environmental toxicology risk assessment.
• What are the benefits of Green Chemistry?
• Explain the concept of pollutant loadings and mass balance in streams and how they help identify pollutant sources.
• Under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Land Disposal Restrictions (LDRs) require what before disposal of hazardous waste?
• What term refers to treated sewage sludge that meets the USEPA pollutant and pathogen requirements for land application and surface disposal?
• In Phase I ESA, which activity is typically included as part of information gathering?
• Which water source is susceptible to contamination from septic tanks, agricultural runoff, highway de-icing, landfills, and pipe leaks?
• The production and consumption of ODSs such as aerosols, halons, CFCs, HCFCs, and methyl bromide are controlled under what?
• POTW stands for what?
• Under pesticide law, a pesticide is defined as which of the following?
• Describe the role of public participation in environmental decision-making and provide two practical methods to involve stakeholders.
• What is a Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) Plan for an environmental sampling program, and what key components should it include?
• The Environmental Protection Agency defines a ______ as "real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant".
• What is the current emphasis of the Clean Water Act?
• HCFCs are commonly used as transitional substitutes for CFCs in which group of applications?
• Which of the following describes Whole Effluent Toxicity (WET) testing requirements?
• Mixed waste is regulated under what act?
• The purpose of the Ground Water Rule is?
• Which term describes wetlands, which are important to watersheds for clean water, flood storage, and shoreline protection?
• The K-List is divided into 13 different subgroups under 40 CFR _______
• What is one of the oldest environmental laws?
• FIFRA was extensively amended in 1972 and most recently by which act?
• The Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948 was the first major U.S. law to address water pollution. Which option accurately reflects this act?
• There is no practical way to eliminate all mold and mold spores in the indoor environment; the way to control indoor mold growth is to control _______.
• Which of the following is NOT listed as a main key step in watershed management?
• Regulations established under Subtitle _____ ban open dumping of waste and set minimum federal criteria for the operation of municipal waste and industrial waste landfills, including design criteria, location restrictions, financial assurance, corrective action (cleanup), and closure requirement.
• Which Halon has been widely used in portable fire extinguishers?
• In macroinvertebrate-based bioassessment, what does higher EPT richness typically indicate about water quality?
• Which of the following statements best describes sludge management and landfill gas control at solid waste facilities?
• What organization is concerned with pollution prevention and energy efficiency, indoor and outdoor air quality, industrial air pollution, pollution from vehicles and engines, radon, acid rain, stratospheric ozone depletion, climate change, and radiation protection?
• Green chemistry reduces pollution by
• Which term best describes solids removed during wastewater treatment that meet pollutant and pathogen requirements for land application?
• Which Halon has primarily been used in the defence, industrial, marine and aviation sector in some countries?
• MDL vs LOQ: Which statement is true?
• Which statement best defines a typical data quality objective element in monitoring design?
• The 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act addressed which issues?
• What is the purpose of calibrating and validating environmental models, and what are two common performance metrics?
• What term describes the facility that collects and treats municipal wastewater?
• ________ are the largest human-caused source of mercury emissions to the air in the United States, accounting for over 40% of all domestic human-caused mercury emissions.
• For those who are creating and using green chemistry, the hierarchy looks like
• Clean Water Act was amended in
• Name the six criteria pollutants for which the EPA established National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) and provide one typical source for each.
• Describe the concept of Best Management Practices (BMPs) in stormwater management and identify two valid examples.
• In risk assessment problem formulation, which statement best defines a protective endpoint?
• In the NRC four-step process, which step examines the frequency, timing, and levels of contact with a substance?
• Which source accounts for the largest share of human-caused mercury emissions in the United States?
• The K-List is divided into ______ different subgroups.
• Which U.S. agency is associated with brownfields policy described in the material?
• ____ is a process that results in a plan or a blueprint of how to best protect and improve the water quality and other natural resources in a watershed.
• EPA is responsible for developing and implementing programs that protect the stratospheric ozone layer under ____.
• Which federal act requires land developers to avoid wetland impacts and, if unavoidable, requires that replaced wetlands be constructed?
• Which term describes the process of implementing land use practices and water management practices to protect and improve the quality of the water and other natural resources within a watershed by managing the use of those land and water resources in a comprehensive manner?
• Which statement is NOT true about the four characteristic wastes?
• Which is a water source type recognized under the Clean Water Act?
• What describes urban and suburban temperatures that are 2 to 10°F (1 to 6°C) hotter than nearby rural areas?
• What units are typically used for the Reference Dose (RfD) in risk assessment when calculating the hazard quotient?
• Under NEPA, which instrument requires the most detailed analysis for significant environmental impacts?
• NPDES permit – what are effluent limitations?
• In risk assessment, which component summarizes risk by combining hazard and exposure information?
• What chemical is widely used as a fumigant in agriculture, for pest control in structures and stored commodities, and for quarantine treatments?
• What is the concept of leachability in hazardous waste characterization, and how does the TCLP test influence waste classification under RCRA?
• What is the most preferred/effective method of waste management?
• What term refers to the solids separated during the treatment of municipal wastewater (including domestic septage)?
• ___ are considered some of the most important habitats on the planet for plant and wildlife conservation.
• The amount of energy required to break up the nucleus into its parts is called the _______
• The net effect of tropospheric aerosols is ___.
• Differentiate ambient monitoring networks from regulatory compliance monitoring.
• ______ refers to the radioactive decay of different discrete radioactive decay products as a chained series of transformations.
• What is the ecosystem services framework, and how is it used in environmental impact assessments?
• Both the P-and-U-Lists govern what kind of wastes?
• Methyl bromide is an example of which type of substance?
• The _________ and other agency bodies provide exposure information for chemicals, biologicals, radiation, and changes in climate, land and water use.
• What distinguishes ambient water quality criteria from enforceable water quality standards, and how do they relate to permits?
• Which statement about lead-based paint is supported by the material?
• What is the primary purpose of the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS)?
• What are statistical non-detects and how should they be treated in environmental data analyses?
• The Clean Air Act was amended in 1970 to achieve National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) in all states by 1975, then later 1977. In what year was this amendment made?
• Define a hazard quotient (HQ) in risk assessment and interpret an HQ value greater than 1.
• Which statement best describes ambient air monitoring and how the data are used to evaluate compliance with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)?
• Define Phase II ESA and explain how it differs from Phase I and when Phase II is typically required.
• Phase II Storm Water regulations became effective in which year, requiring permit coverage for construction activities disturbing one or more acres?
• Identify a commonly used EPA SW-846 method for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in soils/groundwater and briefly describe the method principle.
• The Clean Water Rule will apply to what percentage of the waters in the U.S.?
• Which substance's high-level exposure is associated with harm to multiple organ systems, including the brain and immune system?
• What are designated uses in water quality regulation?
• The increasing concentration of decay products and activity is called?
• Which organization developed the four-step process used by EPA for human health risk assessment?
• Haze, dust, particulate air pollutants, and smoke are examples of ____.
• Which agency defines biosolids and sewage sludge in CFR Title 40 Part 503?
• In the National Research Council's four-step process for human health risk assessments, which step examines the numerical relationship between exposure and effects?
• Which statement best describes overflow events that occur during heavy rainfall?
• Which statement best describes the purpose of a QA/QC plan in environmental sampling and explains why chain-of-custody is essential?
• Which measure is the next most effective after source control for Indoor Air Quality?
• Which action most effectively improves Indoor Air Quality?
• Sewage sludge standards consist of general requirements, pollutant limits, management practices, and operational standards. Which option best describes the components?
• ______ is the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the generation of hazardous substances.
• Which database catalogs toxic chemicals that are being used, manufactured, treated, transported, or released into the environment?
• Which field is most closely associated with the concept of a decay chain?
• How many distinct subgroups does the F-List have?
• If a waste is generated from a specific source, which list would it most likely belong to?
• Explain how to estimate groundwater velocity using Darcy's law and identify the data required.
• The substances aerosols, halons, CFCs, HCFCs, and methyl bromide are examples of
• FIFRA was first passed in which year?
• What are widely used in the refrigeration, foam, solvent, aerosol and firefighting sectors as a transitional substance to substitute CFCs?
• What is the primary purpose of landfill gas collection systems at modern landfills?
• What is bioassessment in aquatic ecosystems, and how are macroinvertebrate indices used to evaluate water quality?
• Which code range represents toxicity characteristic?
• In risk assessment, differentiate between hazard identification and dose-response assessment.
• What is a watershed?
• Which regulation number is associated with the definitions for sewage sludge and biosolids?
• Which statement describes the purpose of a Geographic Information System (GIS) in environmental science, and lists three common spatial analyses you might perform?
• In groundwater sampling, selecting wells at varying depths helps to capture which of the following?
• Which term describes treated sewage sludge used as a soil conditioner?
• Which list includes unused pharmaceuticals?
• Which rule dictates that an adjacent body of water is protected if it is within the 100-year flood plain—and not more than 1,500 feet from a waterway covered under the Clean Water Act?
• Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) is implementing RCRA Corrective Actions initiated by the EPA in ______
• Which metric is a measure of average magnitude of errors without regard to direction, commonly used in model validation?
• By 2020, EPA and its state partners will strive to construct final remedies at ____% of the 3,746 facilities believed to need Corrective Action.
• How many classes of Ozone Depleting Substances (ODSs) are there?
• What is FIFRA and how does it regulate pesticides in the United States?
• The Ground Water Rule targets protection for which type of public water systems?
• The USEPA defines the terms sewage sludge and biosolids in CFR Title 40, Part ___?
• Halon which has seen widespread use in fixed systems throughout the industrial, commercial, marine, defence, and aviation industries is which?
• What is assimilative capacity in the context of water quality, and how does it influence permit decisions?
• Which term describes the process that results in a plan or blueprint of how to best protect and improve the water quality and other natural resources in a watershed?
• To stop creating pollution in the first place became America's official policy in 1990 with the _________.
• A _____ is an area that is regularly saturated by surface water or groundwater and is characterized by a prevalence of vegetation that is adapted for life in saturated soil conditions.
• Define relative risk and absolute risk in epidemiology and explain how they guide public health decisions.
• How can heat islands impair water quality?
• Differentiate sorption and dissolution in soil for contaminant mobility, and state how each affects bioavailability.
• In the United States, what percent of biosolids are beneficially used as a fertilizer on farmland following treatment?
• Green chemistry has how many principles?
• Which term describes implementing land use practices and water management practices to protect water quality within a watershed?
• Which regulation establishes standards for the final use or disposal of sewage sludge generated during domestic sewage treatment?
• Phase 3 Risk Characterization in EPA ecological risk assessment includes two major components: what are they?
• The full list of wastes found on both the P-List and U-List can be found under 40 CFR ______
• Under Subtitle _____, EPA may authorize states to implement key provisions of hazardous waste requirements in lieu of the federal government.
• Radon decay emits _______ particles, the radiation that presents the greatest hazard to lung tissue.
• What have been used extensively in the manufacture of polyurethane, phenolic, polystyrene and polyolefin foam polymers, used in many different products?
• Which CFR section covers the K-List?
• Under what program do operators of large, medium and regulated small municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s) require authorization to discharge pollutants?
• One of the three primary goals of the Clean Water Act is to promote water quality on a watershed basis through cooperation among which levels of government?
• Which statement correctly characterizes the relationship between a QA/QC plan and chain-of-custody in environmental sampling?
• Ground-level or "bad" ozone is not emitted directly into the air, but is created by chemical reactions between
• Under NEPA, what does a Categorical Exclusion (CE) indicate?
• Ethics and professional practice in environmental consulting include which of the following?
• Which term describes the nutrient-rich organic materials produced from wastewater treatment facilities that are used for soil conditioning?
• Which statement accurately describes the differences between bioaccumulation factor (BAF) and bioconcentration factor (BCF) and their role in ecological risk assessments?
• How long is Radon-222's half-life?
• Which agency uses the National Research Council's four-step process for its human health risk assessments?
• When properly treated, sewage sludge becomes what nutrient-rich organic material produced from wastewater treatment facilities?
• Which agency is responsible for enforcing FIFRA by registering pesticides and ensuring labeling and risk mitigation?
• In stormwater Best Management Practices, what is the purpose of a sediment basin?
• Which statement describes the distinction among ephemeral, intermittent, and perennial streams, and why the distinction matters in ecological assessments?
• Which class of compounds has been used extensively in the manufacture of foam polymers?