Saratoga News

Saratoga Stereopticon

Willys Peck

Sewer farms made for humble beginnings

Back when I was getting my journalistic feet wet--probably an inappropriate metaphor in this instance--I was into sewers big time, or thought I was. It was the fall of 1949, and I had recently been hired as the full time West Valley correspondent for the San Jose Mercury Herald. The designation of correspondent was important because even though I came into the newspaper office every night, I could carry a camera, which wouldn't have been possible had I been classified as a reporter. That's because the West Valley was considered a "country beat."

It was at this time that a campaign was under way for passage of a $1,640,000 bond issue to finance construction of trunk sewer lines in Sanitation District No. 4, which included Saratoga, Los Gatos and Campbell. The trunk lines were to tie into the San Jose sewer outfall which, back then, simply emptied into the bay. In the same election, though, that city was to vote on a $4,730,000 bond issue for construction of a sewage treatment plant that would serve the whole north section of the valley, with everybody paying their share for its use.

Since the Mercury Herald was backing these measures, it was my job as West Valley correspondent to come up with persuasive text and pictures to convince readers they should approve the bonds. Given the primitive nature of the facilities, it was as easy as shooting fish in a barrel.

Both Saratoga and Los Gatos were being served by what were euphemistically termed "sewer farms," and in the case of Saratoga, it was no misnomer. The tiny Saratoga Sanitary District, which included little more than the Village, maintained an outfall line that ran down Saratoga Avenue, angled off at about Douglass Lane and traversed orchards to a site off Fruitvale Avenue. There, in 1912, the district had constructed a large, two-compartment septic tank, about a foot of which was visible above ground.

As planned, the septic tank was to drain into cesspools around the perimeter, but these soon proved inadequate. An obliging rancher let the district run the effluent through a wooden flume into his orchard for irrigation, and this worked satisfactorily for several years until the orchard was going to be sold. In 1941, the district started leasing 19 acres around the septic tank, which put it into the fruit-growing business, and several good crops made it possible to pay off the purchase price in 1948.

One thing about that sewer farm: Those were the healthiest fruit trees you'd ever hope to see--apricots mostly--because they had to be crops that were harvested from branches rather than picked from the ground.

The bond issues passed, the trunk lines were constructed and San Jose built its disposal plant. This left the Sanitary District with 19 acres of very healthy fruit trees, but no real reason to keep maintaining them. Enter the Saratoga Union School District, which was looking for a site for its second school. The availability of the old sewer farm was nothing short of serendipitous, and thus came about the location of Fruitvale School, now Redwood Middle School. In reporting all this in the Mercury Herald--by now the Herald had been dropped and it was simply the San Jose Mercury --I invariably referred to the new school site as the old sewer farm, in the interests of journalistic accuracy. This caused my good friend and fellow Lions Club member Dan Ungaro some discomfiture since, as school district superintendent, he was getting flak from parents concerned about pollution. Compared with today's concern over toxic wastes in various public sites around the country, this was as nothing. After all, how organic can you get?

In terms of crudity of disposal methods, Los Gatos put Saratoga in the infant class. The Gem City of the Foothills had tried its best, with something called the Imhof tank and trickling filter system installed in 1913. However, for a variety of reasons, it never could be made to work satisfactorily. So in 1944, the town fathers threw in the sponge--another unfortunate metaphor--and had a series of deep ponds dug simply to hold the sewage and let as much as possible seep into the ground. Chemical applications kept the odor down somewhat, but there still were many winds that blew no good. Oak Meadow Park, the most fertile land in the county, occupies the site today.

In an area characterized by million-dollar-plus homes, with utilities to match, I think it is good now and then to look back on some humble beginnings, and none is more humble than a sewer farm. Or an outhouse, and we had them, too.

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