What goes under reported is actually how clean the water is compared to even a few decades ago when whole parts of cities lacked sewage treatment facilities and many private homes along the state's major rivers flushed right into the river. None of state's major rivers have dead zones and the sewage spills and overflows today are usually relatively small and quickly diluted and broken down by natural bacteria. There is work to be done but it's not as awful as one might think by reading the reports from the Sewage Right to Know law.