What are nutrients? Nutrients are substances that help plants and animals to grow. Nutrients can be good and bad. They can be good because they help things grow but they can be bad because they make unwanted plants like algae grow.
	So nutrients make things grow.  What's the problem? Nutrients can cause an increase in plants and algae in our rivers. This increase in plants and algae causes the flow of the river to be decreased because so many plants grow the water can't get through very easily.  This also causes the water temperature to rise and many of the living creatures in the river cannot survive a change in water temperature.  As the flow has been lowered, oxygen in the river is also lowered because the water is not being splashed and churned to create oxygen in the water.
Where do the nutrients come from? Nutrients get into our waterways because of run off. Run off can come from places such as rubbish dumps, animal farms, crops, orchards, washing the car, dog droppings left in the streets.  These places and objects contain nutrients.  When it rains, the water washes all of the nutrients down the drains and end up in our waterways.	click picture for sound
By Michelle, Adrienne and Casey