Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
This sign is left over from the discovery of high levels of fecal coliform bacteria that was polluting the Saratoga Creek. The West Valley Sanitation District recently completed repairs to a leaking sewer line that was apparently the cause of the problem.
Tests prove that source of creek pollution was sewer
By Kara Chalmers
Repair of a leaky sewer line has proven what an investigative team had believed to be true since last summer--that sewer water was leaking into the city's storm drains and polluting the Saratoga Creek.
The Friends of the Santa Clara County Creeks and the San Francisco BayKeeper sued Saratoga in 1995, for violating clean water laws. Tests of Saratoga Creek showed that high levels of fecal coliform bacteria that is present in the intestines of mammals and found in sewage, polluted the water.
In April 1999, when the Friends and Baykeeper settled the lawsuit with the city, part of the settlement required an investigation into the source of the creek's pollution.
Staff from the city of Saratoga, West Valley Sanitation District staff, Santa Clara Valley Water District staff and Saratogan Don Whetstone, the president of the Friends, who negotiated the settlement with the city, contributed to the investigation.
In June 2000, the investigative team by chance discovered that water from the main clay sanitary-sewer line, that runs beneath Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road, seemed to be getting into the storm drain line at the intersection of Saratoga-Los Gatos Road and Saratoga Avenue, and which leads to the creek.
In response, the sanitation district repaired the inside of the sewer pipes that were affecting the storm drain line. The district also repaired sewer pipes near the storm-drain under the intersection of Fourth Street and Big Basin Way. The flow from this storm drain line empties into Saratoga Creek at Wildwood Park. The bacteria levels at that location were not as high as at the Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road location, but were still high, Whetstone said.
Whetstone said that recent tests he has done of water flowing from storm drains into the creek have confirmed that the water is no longer contaminated. The repairs cost $130,000 and were done between November 2000 and January 2001.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
