Public health beginnings

The beginnings of public health started with infection diseases transmuted by sewage tainted water.
While there have been many advances, expanding into all communicable diseases and infirmities caused by different kinds of pollution, (some natural and some man made) , much of public health's triumphs have been in the area of preventing the transmission of disease through human sewage influence water.
Sewage treatment plants deal with vast quantities of effluent and use various methods to destroy the bacteria and viruses that cause human disease.
What would you think if a treatment plant notified proper authorities of a spill and those authorities did nothing to warn people who might be exposed to that water?
That is my question today...