An experimental and theoretical investigation has been undertaken to study the trajectory and growth of thermal effluents having a range of discharge velocities and temperatures. The discharge of a turbulent effluent into a waterway was mathematically modeled as a submerged jet injection process by using an integral method which accounts for natural fluid mechanisms such as turbulence, entrainment, buoyancy, and heat transfer. The analytical results are supported by experimental data and demonstrate the usefulness of the theory for estimating the location and size of the effluent with respect to the discharge point. The capability of predicting jet flow properties, as well as two- and three-dimensional jet paths, was enhanced by obtaining the jet cross sectional area during the solution of the conservation equations (a number of previous studies assume a specific growth for the area). Realistic estimates of temperature in the effluent were acquired by accounting for heat losses in the jet flow due to forced convection and to entrainment of free-stream fluid into the jet.