thermal pollution

American  

noun

1. a rise in the temperature of rivers or lakes that is injurious to water-dwelling life and is caused by the disposal of heated industrial waste water or water from the cooling towers of nuclear power plants.

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thermal pollution Cultural  

1. The dumping of heated gas es or heated wastewater (often from electrical generating plants) into the air or water.

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Thermal pollution of the air can affect the weather; thermal pollution of water can threaten plants or animals living in it.

Example Sentences

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thermal pollution

The activity of traffic, businesses, and people on Cardiff's streets has caused what has been described as "thermal pollution", meaning water underground is unusually warm - around 12 degrees.

From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2025

This inverse relation between temperature and dissolved gas concentration is responsible for one of the major impacts of thermal pollution in natural waters.

From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019

But a special target were always Con Ed’s Hudson River power plants whose thermal pollution attracted and killed large numbers of fish.

From New York Times ● Apr. 14, 2015

But they also created that leverage, by seeing to it that thermal pollution was included in the Clean Water Act as a form of pollution.

From New York Times ● Apr. 14, 2015

They called for a halt in the construction of a nuclear power station to avoid thermal pollution of Lake Michigan, and for faster action to reduce the sulfur content of coal that the utility burns.

From Time Magazine Archive