About 2,500 municipal wastewater treatment plants have been built in Norway, 400 of which have discharge permits from the County Governors. The municipalities themselves are responsible authorities for the rest, that is to say for populated areas of fewer than 2,000 person equivalents in the case of discharge to fresh water and fjord outlets, and of fewer than 10,000 for discharge into fjords and coastal waters. There are also about 350,000 treatment plants for approximately 800,000 people who either live in sparsely populated areas or have cabins. For these too, the municipality is the pollution control authority. Most wasteater treatment plants in Norway were built during the period 1970 to 1985. There are still about 500 untreated discharges, covering approximately 350,000 persons, where treatment plants have yet to be built. Two trends are that new treatment systems are being built for individual houses and cabins, while other buildings are being connected to the public sewerage system and closing down their separate treatment plants.