effluent

1. not comparableFlowing out; outflowing.

   But while the effluent beams of the sun, and their quickening power in the natural sphere, furnish a good illustration of my idea of the Holy Spirit, I may, perhaps, illustrate the idea still better by a reference to human thoughts and affections […]

   1860, Benjamin Franklin Barrett, Letters on the Divine Trinity: Addressed to Henry Ward Beecher

plural effluents

1. countableA stream that flows out, such as from a lake or reservoir; an outflow; effluence.

   The landscape was dotted with reservoirs and many many effluent streams.

2. uncountableSewage or waste water discharged into a natural body of water.

   Residents have little control over the industrial effluent that pollutes their rivers.

   2 more examples

   Still remarkably clean, Baikal nevertheless feels the effects of air and water pollution from various sources, including industries around Irkutsk and from the Selenga river, which provides half the water flowing into Baikal. Most controversy centers on the effluent from a cellulose plant at Baikalsk.

   1992 June, “The Pearl of Siberia”, in National Geographic, volume 181, number 6

   One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination.

   2014 June 14, “It’s a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891, London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 Jun 2014

   Synonyms: discharge