What processes occur within a river that enable it to cleanse itself and maintain water quality?
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1. Dilution: Imagine you have a little bit of chocolate milk and you add a lot of regular milk. The chocolate milk will still be there, but it won’t taste as chocolaty because it’s mixed with all the regular milk. Rivers do the same with things that might make them dirty.
2. Sedimentation: When you put a toy at the bottom of your bathtub, it stays there, right? This is the same for dirt in rivers. Over time, heavy dirt settles to the bottom.
3. Filtration: If you pour sand through a strainer, the sand stays behind, right? Rivers have their own strainers—rocks and plants—that catch and hold onto some of the dirty stuff.
4. Biological processes: You know how you have good bugs in your tummy that help you digest food? Rivers have good bugs too! They eat up some of the bad stuff in the water.
5. Sunlight: When you leave your toys out in the sun, sometimes their colors fade. The sun can do something similar to some of the bad stuff in rivers, making it harmless.
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