 |
|
|
|
|
Officials find link between Village sewer and waterway
Pollutants flowed into a storm drain that fed creek
Local stream still dirty
By Oakley Brooks
Local authorities say they are one small step closer to solving the riddle of the contaminated Saratoga Creek.
On May 1, West Valley Sanitation District workers found that the sewage line from a Fourth Street commercial complex dumped directly into a storm drain that feeds the creek at Wildwood Park.
But officials and citizens close to the ongoing cleanup, which stems from a 1999 lawsuit settlement between the city and Friends of the Santa Clara County Creeks, say the source is only one of several contributing to Saratoga Creek contamination. They say that a completely clean creek may be years away.
"Until people can wade in it or swim in it, we're not done," said Public Works Director John Cherbone, who's spearheading the city's effort.
To prevent further contamination, Cherbone recently had the Fourth Street drain sealed at its outlet to the creek. To compensate for the sealed outlet, the city installed a pump system to send backed-up water from the storm drain to the nearby sewer line.
West Valley Sanitation District Manager Bob Reid says his staff used a dye test and video equipment recently, to discover that waste water from a business in Victorian Village was ending up in the storm drain. Meanwhile, the sewer extension from Victorian Village will be rerouted to the nearby sewer line.
Cherbone says that water tests taken from the storm drain farther up Fourth Street confirm that the Victorian Village is not the only polluter. He adds that the presence of fecal coliform bacteria--which comes from the human intestine--increases as the storm drain descends downhill from Oak Street to Wildwood Park.
Sewer lines connected to the drainage system, similar to the one recently discovered beneath Victorian Village, are only one factor contributing to the Saratoga Creek's high bacteria count. According to Cherbone, leaky sewer lines, such as the one fixed last year near the corner of Big Basin Way and Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road, are another cause. The sewage seeps out of the lines and into the open storm drain pipes that often sit at lower elevations than the sewers.
Reid says the sanitation district is in the process of a $2 million sewage line upgrade throughout the West Valley. It shored up the mains under Big Basin Way in 1990, and will soon repair the Oak Street line.
Private septic systems throughout the Saratoga Creek watershed may also be contributing to contamination, according to Cherbone. The city is mandating that most property owners move from septic tanks and onto sewer lines, though Councilman Stan Bogosian says the council may soon push for a speedier and more comprehensive conversion.
"The five city council members are 100 percent on board with this issue," says Bogosian.
That's music to the ears of Don Whetstone, president of the Friends of the Santa Clara County Creeks. It was city council's mixed response about cleaning up Saratoga Creek in the mid-1990s that led Whetstone to file suit under federal clean water laws.
As part of the settlement of the suit, the city agreed to work with Whetstone, the sanitation district and Santa Clara Valley Water District (which processes water quality tests) to eliminate the pollution from the creek. The city has directed much of the efforts, with the sanitation district bearing most of the costs, in terms of sewer repairs.
Local authorities credit Whetstone's persistence as the driving force behind the slow, but steady, improvement of the creek watershed.
"It's an excellent natural resource and it would be unfortunate if we didn't do everything we reasonably can to protect it," said Whetstone.
Whetstone and John Cherbone both say it will be at least a year or two before they have the creek pollution under control.
Then, it will be on to Rodeo Creek, which Whetstone says is in even worse condition than Saratoga Creek.
"This is something that happens in an area like this, where a creek runs through a highly developed area," said Whetstone. "It happens in other cities, as well. The difference is that here in Saratoga we're going to clear our creeks up."
|
|
|
|
Saratoga, California Since 1955
