Thermal Pollution

Thermal pollution is the degradation of water quality by any process that changes ambient water temperature. A common cause of thermal pollution is the use of water as a coolant by power plants and industrial manufacturers. The term thermal pollution has been used to indicate the detrimental effects of heated effluent discharge by various power plants. It denotes the impairment of quality and deterioration of aquatic and terrestrial environment by various industrial plants like thermal, atomic, nuclear, coal-fired plants, oil field generators, factories, and mills. The discharged effluents of these sources have a higher temperature than the intake water that reduces the concentration of oxygen from the water which causes the deleterious effects on the marine ecosystem.