The General Accounting Office (GAO) has made this review because extensive Federal funds will be involved in pollution control projects along the Missouri River. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is authorized to award grants to States and municipalities for constructing sewage treatment facilities if enforceable water quality standards have been established. The legislation empowering the grants does not specify the minimum levels of sewage treatment necessary to meet the water quality standards. EPA, however, is requiring the States along the Missouri River to provide secondary sewage treatment by 1975 for municipal wastes entering the river. The principal purposes of sewage treatment are (1) to keep enough dissolved oxygen in the water to support aquatic life and (2) to prevent offensive conditions. To enforce its requirements, EPA has advised State and local officials that the Federal Government will not participate in the cost of constructing sewage projects along the river unless the States include secondary treatment in their water pollution control programs.