Thermal pollution, sometimes called "thermal enrichment," 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. Other causes of thermal pollution include soil erosion. When someone thinks of pollution, the idea of thermal pollution often doesn’t come to mind. People will first think of things like carbon emissions, personal pollution and waste, and a variety of other changing factors. However, thermal pollution is a real and persistent problem in our modern society. In layman’s terms, thermal pollution is when an industry or other human-made organization takes in water from a natural source and either cools it down or heats it up. They then eject that water back into the natural resource, which changes the oxygen levels and can have disastrous effects on local ecosystems and communities.
