So most of the channel industries had good secondary treatment before the passage of P.L. 92-500. Texas was ahead of most states in this effort. Industry has got a bad name out of this thing. In recent years they have been very progressive under both P. L.92-500 and the Texas law previously. The Texas law tracks the federal law fairly well.
Violators are subject to fines.
However, we have been able to obtain penalties as large as they have on various cases. Of course, we have to look at fines realistically. The threat of a fine doesn't really make industries build a treatment plant, because they could just write a check out to the state of Texas and come out better financially than by building the treatment plant. The biggest polluter on the Channel today is the City of Houston. When we first surveyed the Channel discharges back in 1968, industry contributed about 60 percent of the total load and municipalities contributed the rest.