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The existing approaches to the mathematical modeling and optimization of a water pollution problem are briefly surveyed. A proposed geometric programming model of a water pollution and treatment system, which easily lends itself to the theory and application of nonlinear programming sensitivity analysis techniques, is studied in detail. As in previous work by the author of the model, the optimal waste treatment facilities along the Upper Hudson River are presented for three different environmental policies, leaving the sensitivity analysis study for a following report. Previous results were obtained using a geometric programming code, while the present study makes use of the SUMT code. It is shown that the policy of fixed dissolved oxygen requirement yields the mininum annual waste treatment cost, relative to two other policies. Moreover, it is shown that a variable dissolved oxygen policy yields relatively uniform treatment levels in the treatment plants at appreciabley reduced cost compared to the costs involved in strict uniform treatment policy. the results of the present study are consistent with, but not identical to, the finding reported in previous work. The discrepancy in the coefficients involved in the dissolved oxygen constraints used by these two studies is the main reason for the differences observed. A listing of a computer program developed to calculate these coefficients is included. (Author)