Thermal pollution

Thermal pollution, ecologically harmful warming of rivers, lakes, or oceans. In the past, this pollution was most often caused by heated wastewater discharged from nuclear power plants or factories into streams, rivers, or other bodies of water, resulting in elevated water temperature that endangered both plant and animal life in the water. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established regulations requiring such parties either to cool the heated wastewater before discharging it or to release small amounts of it into many different places. Both precautions are aimed at maintaining normal temperatures in rivers and lakes to protect the life in them.

See also: Pollution.