Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-04-15

and livery stables and other like causes filed
up the canal. Now this drainage canal, which
it is alleged in this complaint and is stoutly
asserted in argument has been obstructed by
this defendant, these witnesses Mr.. Knox
and Mr. Bassett) tell US has not been Oh.
structed at all except from causes which the
most fertile invention would fail to impute TO
this defendant or to any ether mining
company. The drainage of the city
goes into e main sewer that COM
mences at r street and terminates
at Y street, dischsrging there into the drain
age canal. We may say, however, that the
drainage canal proper commences little be-
low r street, and that between L and
streets what we call the main sewer of this
city and the drainage canal are really one
thing. Below Y street, where formerly and
until the Act of 1873 it was under the juris-
diction of the county, it is called the drainage
canal, and it is an open ditch constructed in
loose alluvial soil. It is also an open ditch
half the way between r and Y streets. The
water in this drainage canal flows very slowly
and the canal chokes up with deleterious
matter, which at times the city digs out and
throws upon the banks. Mr.. Knox says
there were no sewers here before 1862 except
little boxes across the streets that had been
filled, and none outside of the mainly popu-
lated portion of the city street, j street and
X street, running up to Eleventh and Twelfth.
The sewerage of the city was then carried OFT
by little wooden boxes put across the streets.
That was the only thing in the nature of
drainage or sewerage until after 1862; and
while he was speaking on this subject he said
that the city really has no sewerage now, and
l may add. never has had any. Originally
the only drainage of the city was the natural
surface drainage from the northern part of
the city to the low grounds il the southern
part [ think we have thoroughly refuted
this charge, and exposed an ill.consldered
attempt to create false idea regarding the
causes for defective drainage and sewerage In
this city.
They also say there is more sipage water
or soil water-now than there was formerly,
and that it becomes an obstruction to the
drainage. 1t is very obvious, however, that.
if there is more sipage water, instead of OBJ
structing the canal it assists it in its dis
charge. Sipsge water is not like food water.
1t does not come in volumes, but creeps up
slowly out of the soil and is not great in
amount. It does not flow with current,
and if it gets into the canal it simply adds to
the fowage capacity and assists in carrying
away the thick, foul matter which chokes the
current of the canal.
| THE CITY SEWERAGE.
Now, this drainage question is intimately
connected with the question of sewerage.
They complain that the sewerage of this city
has been destroyed. Some of the witnesses
who spoke upon that subject did not I'M
derstand what our " sewerage SYSTEM" So
called, was but they assumed that we had
q system of sewerage. I do not think it is
necessary to recur to that portion of the tes-
timony in detail. The testimony of MIR. Bas-
sett from whom we obtain the grades of the
sewers and drainage canal, deserves attention.
[ will recur to it very briefly. l think a
careful examination and consideration of his
testimony will enable any person to form a
correct idea in regard to the natural situa-
ton of this city, and will enable him to see
how far if at all. it has ever been in
jured by the accumulation of sand bars
and other debris in the American and Sac.
ramento rivers and upon the land in this
vicinity. There are only six sewGrs-and we
will call them sewers now for the purpose OF
the misunderstanding through this city
from north to SOUTH That large portion of
the city east of Thirteenth street has no
sewerage at all, and very large portion of
the inhabitants Of this city reside above that
street. We are standing on Eleventh street
now, and there is no sewer through this
street. There is no other sewer until we
reach Ninth street. and then there are sew
ers running through Seventh, Fifth and
Third, and in the alley between Front and
Second streets, making six in all which run
to Il street. Those above Sixth street turn
at right angle on r street and run west tc
Sixth, and those below Sixth street turn on a
like angle at r street and run east TO Sixth.
They unite at Sixth and K streets, and there
pass into the drainage canal. Now those are
the sewers and conduits which are the basis
of the sewerage system of this city, and
which, il is alleged, have been Ill iured. There
are also the lateral sewers between these odd
numbered streets which connect with these
main sewers, and they are generally made Of
wood, some Of them without bottoms.
There have been few, of late introduction,
made OF earthen pipes, but generally they are
of wood. Some OF the main sewers are
also of wood and soE1e are of brick,
but they are constructed generally with
open work on the bottom and sides
Instead of the sewers of this city being con-
structed as sewers are constructed In every
city we have ever heard of-constructed fol
the purpose of combining and carrying away
the foul waters to some proper receptacle
cheese sewers are made expressly to distribute
their foul contents in the soil of the city al
: widely as possible. Perhaps that was ne
cessity, although it does not seem to me to BIZ
so, because no solid or fecal matter is dis
t charged into these sewers, or these drains
which they call sewers. The city authorities
have strictly adhered to the policy, if it is g
policy, of having all that matter sink into
the soil upon which the city is built, to sat
urate it, permeate it, and tester there anC
breed disease. And city having system Of
sewers like that comes into Court here in the
name of the People of the State and com
plains that we have destroyed its sewerage
} system. Well, such sewerage system e;
that ought to be destroyed. 1t never ought
to be allowed to exist. Is there no remedy
for this? Whether there is, or is not, is per
haps not necessarily question here, but
there is very easy remedy. Cities similarly
situated find means of disposing OF thell
, sewage-cities built upon plains. There il
only one remedy, in my judgment, for it but
, perhaps it is not exactly pertinent to refer tc
it, except so far as it shows that if uDusua
disease prevails here it is one of the results
of the city's own negligence. If it had Oh
could have q better system, if it could have
system" which was entitled to thai
J name, and then some one should interfere
! with it, they might come into Court o.
, Justice with clean hands. There is, as l hav:
said, only one remedy for it, and that is by
sinking a deep well at a point JUS
matter necessarily centers, where it find:
an outlet as far as it is enabled to dis
. charge itself. There let deep well be dug
and have all the sewers discharge into it with
steep grades let the sewers receive all ths
sewage matter of the city let it all be dis
. charged into this deep we'll and then be pumped
out, deodorlzed and removed. That system
has already been suggested, and it is the only
way of properly disposing of the sewage o.
, this city. So, therefore, l say one of the most
material matters of complaint upon which
this action is founded has no fair or truthful
ground on which to rest. 1t is not true thai
the sewerage of this city has been injured by
any of the deposits in the American river
and it is not true that it has been injured by
any of the deposits in the Sacramento river
There never has been any drainage of the
sewage matter into either Of those rivers
There could not be such drainage, owing tC
the topography of the river banks, with theil
surfaces sloping away from instead OF to the
river.
, PERCoLATIoN.
Another theory which the plaintiffs havt
attempted to establish is that the defendant
/ and others, as they allege, by causing bars t.
be formed in the rivers and raising the bed d
the rivers at this point. have caused the per
collation. of the waters from the rivers into the
low grounds hsre to be greater than it for
merly was. There is no doubt but that upoI
all rivers, where the surfaces on each side slope
, towards the river, the natural drainage il
into the river. As was stated by Hamilton
Smith, that was the case, not only with the
, u-a4ar ON tho surface Init with the watar in