The word 'allowed' cannot be removed from the correct answer, because there is a difference between, what is allowed amount and what is currently being dumped. That leaves us with A, C and D.

'A' can be removed - it uses 'Had Been' and here it's not required as we are not differentiating between 2 past situations.

I think 'C' can be removed because of the use of 'reduces'....it should be 'reduced', as we are talking about an agreement of 1972.

D sounds good to me.

I am also with D - argreement rediced the amount of phosphates and this amount is stiill used by municipalities

Should be A IMO, can't be D, it uses "are" instead of "were". Also, i don't see the issue with A using past perfect. The amount had been allowed (past perfect) precedes the reduced (past) level.

just looked through the SC 1000 and found this and the answer is indeed A. This is not to say that their answers are correct but A does make sense

"reduced the phosphate amount that municipalities had been/were dumping" gives an ambiguity.

The term 'reduced' is referring to what? The amount of phosphate that were already dumped, or the amount of phosphate that are currently being dumped?

If we rephrase the two sentences,

A will look like - Municipalities had been allowed to dump a specific amount of phosphate into the lake - A 1972 agreement between Canada and the United States reduced this amount.

D will look like - Municipalities are allowed to dump a specific amount phosphate into the lake - A 1972 agreement between Canada and the United States reduced this amount.

The past perfect in A mean to say, the municipalities are not allowed to dump phosphate now!! Hence I think D is more correct.

People, the answer in the OG is D.

The agreement was made in 1972, however it still continues.
We are not comparing the two different times, but what has happened after this agreement!

I would like this forum re-opened with experts advice.

I ended up with A and D, and eventually succumbed to choosing A for the reason that had been should have been used because we are talking about an event before "the 1972 agreement reduced the amount..."

Please shed some light. Thanks.

rahulakacyrus wrote:A 1972 agreement between Canada and the United States reduced the amount of phosphates that municipalities had been allowed to dump into the Great Lakes.

A.
B.reduced the phosphate amount that municipalities had been dumping
C.reduces the phosphate amount municipalities have been allowed to dump
D.reduced the amount of phosphates that municipalities are allowed to dump
E.reduces the amount of phosphates allowed for dumping by municipalities[/u]

You just have one event here. But you need two events to use the past perfect (had been). You have to use past tense at the beginning because of (1972) and present tense because the agreement is still true. Thus D wins.

For further reading https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/og-sc-62-t580.html. I hope I could help.