Is very interesting, I hope some so-called journalists get on this, Who's that maddows women.... she might be the journalist to email lol.

Check this out:

Among POTWs, the large-scale investment in wastewater treatment increased the fraction of the U.S. served by wastewater treatment plants from 42% in 1970 to 74% by 1985. Among all POTWs, the rate of significant noncompliance with permits was 11% in 1984 and had declined to about 9% in 1994. However, an EPA-sponsored audit of POTW pretreatment programs in 1992 found that 54% of significant industrial users (SIUs) were in “significant noncompliance,” which means they failed to observe at least one component of the POTW’s pretreatment program. Of these, 35% were in violation of discharge standards and 36% were in violation of self-monitoring or reporting requirements (Adler et al. 1993)

At least until the mid-1990s, in other words, the pollutant reductions achieved by the effluent guidelines program were significantly less than what had been achieved by full implementation. This failure probably accounts for at least part of the gap between ex ante and ex post estimates of compliance costs.

Has water quality improved? It is generally agreed that the Clean Water Act has achieved some important local successes in improving water quality. In rivers near major cities, contact recreation is now encouraged in areas where it had been forbidden in the 1970s, an outcome probably attributable to the regulation of pollutants from point sources. Knopman and Smith (1993) cite improvements in the Potomac near Washington, the Delaware near Philadelphia, and the *Flint River in Georgia** .*

I heard there were some large agrochemical producers up river who'd be dumping for decades. Going to keep investigating!