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Creek settlement requirements completed, cleanup continues
By Oakley Brooks
Both city officials and local clean water advocates expressed satisfaction last week that the city had met the 1999 settlement terms of a lawsuit surrounding the sullied waters of Saratoga Creek.
Although the creek is still contaminated on a regular basis, Friends of Santa Clara County Creeks President Don Whetstone--who initiated the suit against the city--believes the city has completed an extensive task list outlined in the settlement.
"They've met more than my expectations," Whetstone said recently. "It's going to be some time before this creek is cleaned up completely, but this is just something that takes time."
Meeting the demands of the Friends and co-plaintiffs San Francisco Baykeepers Inc. was something previous city council administrations were unwilling to do for almost four years after the environmental groups filed a claim under federal clean water laws in 1995.
The issue became a key point of debate during the city council election in 1998, when public support swung behind a clean creek. Candidates scrambled to show favor for a settlement in the case, leaving incumbent Councilwoman Gillian Moran to answer accusations that she and other council members had dragged their feet on creek cleanup.
Three new council members were elected that year, joining Stan Bogosian and Jim Shaw, and the new administration finally reached agreement with the environmental groups in April 1999.
"I think it's a tremendous accomplishment," Bogosian said recently of living up to the agreement. "And the actual cost to the city has been almost negligible compared to the cost of litigation."
On top of strengthening public awareness and safety through more signs, testing and a toxic discharge response plan, the settlement called on the city to phase out septic systems and to fix a sewage line that was feeding into the creek through a storm drain along Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road.
Earlier this year, West Valley Sanitation District officials resealed the sewer main that had been leaking into the creek via a storm drain near the Saratoga Avenue intersection.
Following a change in the city's sewer laws in 1999, 270 households had converted from isolated septic systems to sanitary sewer networks by this summer. The city pursued putting liens on some 60 homes that failed to convert to sewer systems, which would prevent building permits or sale of the home until the septic systems are abandoned.
This May, the city and West Valley Sanitation officials also located a sewer line in the village that linked one business's toilet directly to the creek through a storm drain.
The pinpointing of two sources of pollution and the phasing out of septic systems, which leach sewer into the soil, has paralleled a significant drop in Saratoga Creek's resident fecal coliform bacteria (from the intestines of mammals). Gone are the days when the creek registered fecal coliform at 800 times the legal limit.
But during the last comprehensive test in August, the stream still consistently showed fecal coliform counts above the federal limit of 200 parts per 100 ml of water. At Springer Avenue, the water measured 12 times over the limit and at Herriman Avenue, it more than doubled the mark.
So although the lawsuit settlement terms have been met, Public Works Director John Cherbone says the momentum from those mandated measures will continue to drive further cleanup.
"The council gave us direction to keep solving the problem," Cherbone said. "We're doing this because it's the right thing to do."
Whetstone and John Cherbone believe that the leaching action of some 10 septic systems that continue to operate on creek-front property in the city are contributing to the pollution.
These septic systems are currently exempt from the 1999 law ordering conversion to sewer lines because they sit downhill from the sewer main and would require an expensive pump system to send discharge up to the main line.
But Cherbone found recently that the cost of the pump could be offset by installing smaller piping to connect the home to the sewer main. During a power outage and the accompanying failure of the electric pump, Cherbone says the old septic tank could be used as a holding tank.
West Valley Sanitation District has also agreed to broaden its financing program to cover the installation of pumps.
Because of the new findings, Cherbone has recommended that the city council consider removing the below-grade exemptions.
The council is also considering an addition to sewer laws that would require an inspection of individual sewer lines at homes and the installation of a modern cleanout system when a property's ownership changes or during major construction.
Individual sewer lines less than 15 years old would be exempt from the new requirement, as Cherbone believes those younger systems are less prone to leakage.
Under the reformed laws, sewer inspectors would also be allowed to use remote video technology to check homes' systems.
The cost of improvements has been a concern for residents and city officials alike--Councilman Bogosian said recently that he was worried that his own sewer lines might be dilapidated and require updating.
The city has set up a hardship fund to assist qualified homeowners with converting from a septic system to the main sewer line.
For more information, call the city at 408.868.1267.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
