Letters

Birth control in salt licks could solve deer problem

I read with great interest the article about the deer problem in Saratoga. My family personally finds our deer an attractive nuisance. I would love to see something done about them.

The deer herd near our home has blossomed since last year with two more Bambis to forage in my vegetable garden and pillage my trees and flowers. Neighbors either have illegally tall fences or oleander and agapantha as the main theme in their yards. Personally, we have spent many hours and hundreds of dollars trying to live with the deer.

Councilwoman Ann Waltonsmith's idea of neutering the deer with birth control in salt licks sounds attractive to me. I can't see why there would be legal problems.

The cost of this option has to be less than installing two sets of fences, one inside the other, which I have been assured is the only way to keep deer out of our yard.

Rachel Zierdt
Maclay Court

Sewer repair will not get rid of all pollution in creek

In response to Lou Thorpe's letter in the Aug. 2 issue of the Saratoga News, I would like to try to clear up several misconceptions. It is hoped that repairing the leaking sewer line will eliminate or at least substantially reduce pollution in the storm drain under Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road. However, sewer repairs in the village area will not eliminate all of the pollution in Saratoga Creek. The pattern of bacteriological pollution revealed by the test results obtained in the extensive three-year UCAP study made it clear that there are multiple sources along Saratoga Creek, throughout the city. Repeated careful visual examinations of the entire creek throughout the City revealed no above-ground pollution sources; therefore it is virtually certain that the pollution enters the creek principally from underground.

It is understandable that few people have reason to think about how water gets into creeks, such as Saratoga Creek, that flow steadily in the dry season. The principal source is infusion of ground water. Therefore any septic systems and/or leaking sewer lines near creeks should be regarded as possible sources of pollution. A number of septic systems and sewer lines are very close to Saratoga Creek.

The recent investigation that identified the leaking sewer main under Saratoga-Los Gatos Road illuminated a point that is highly relevant to the septic system issue. It showed that water can flow underground, outside of any pipe, downhill over a distance of several hundred feet laterally, in minutes. Under similar subterranean conditions water from any underground source, such as a septic system leach field, can flow in a similar manner and directly infiltrate into a creek. I am aware of a case in Placer County in which a spring that supplied a local water system was pristine--until septic systems installed hundreds of feet away began to cause pollution in the spring.

I sympathize with those for whom the cost of abandoning a septic system is a serious burden; but it should be understood that all of the water entering septic systems has to go somewhere. It goes into either (1) surface water, such as creeks or (2) the aquifer, from which it may eventually be pumped back into municipal water supply. What will be the cumulative effects of continuing to add all sorts of inorganic and organic pollutants to the aquifer in this way? What would be the result if all of the millions of inhabitants this densely populated area disposed of their waste water in this manner?

Don Whetstone
Vickery Avenue

DeCinzo

Los Gatos and Saratoga high schools proceed with their facilities improvements

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