Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-06-05
THAT oUTFALL SEWER.
what an Experienced Real Estate
Man Thinks OF 1t.

what an Experienced Real Estate
Man Thinks OF IL.
1t is proposed to conduct the Los An
geles sewer matter along the Southern
Pacific railroad, and through the Ballona
salt flats to the ocean. The salt marsh
covers vast area, and is separated from
the ocean only by low ridge OF sand
At spring tide the water from the ocean
breaks in over the ridge and fills the
marshy hollow. The water is stagnant
there for weeks until it has evaporated.
When the sewage matter is discharged
there it will be carried back from the sea
into these flats at spring tide and lib DEATH
hearing odors will fill the atmosphere.
The sewage of London, England, is SINH
larly discharged into the tidal river
Thames. At rising tide it is carried
forty miles inland, and the stencil at the
ontfall ia 40 great that no houses are
there for miles. We can avoid a
similar condition of things by build
;nv our sewer through land of a
higher level, avoiding altogether the salt
marshes. :.
Savage matter is valuable as ferti-
lizer. In conjunction with our irrigating
water. it can be made source of an an
nual income of 5000, 900 to the city of Los
Angeles. if it is conducted through dry
lands. too sandy at present to produce
crops without irrigation. Along the bed
of the Los Angeles River as far as the
ocean are thousands of acres of such dry
land.
Dry earth is the most powerful deoder-
izer known. The earth absorbs all the
evil smelling vapors, and the dry sand
repeatedly irrigated with the sewage
stream becomes permanently enriched
by the decayed vegetable matter dis
charged from the sewer. Thus the dry
sand beds at and near Florence, that are
now unproductive and uninhabited will
be changed into valuable garden land,
an exact repetition of the process that
has produced the fruit garden, now
called Vernon.
Lately the sewage has become offen-
sive at Vernon, simply because too large
an amount was used on small area.
Pipe the sewage ten miles further, dis
tribute it over an area ten times rs great !,
and instead of nuisance it becomes
potent factor in enriching the land as
well as the cultivator of the soil.
1t is very serious mistake to conduct
the sewage through the lowest level of
our valley, the moist lands of the
Cienega and the Ballona swamps. Take
it through higher level, over the arid
sands, plant these with eucalyptus, keep
the sewers flushed with our irrigating
waters, and the diluted stream will lose
its unpleasant smell, will en-
rich the country, will produce
vast forests of good trees where
now the white, burning sand allows no
vegetation to germinate. We hope to
get beet sugar factories here. The lands
of the Centinela and Laguna ranches
will produce the beets, if under system
of irrigation. At present they have no
such system, and you cannot start beet
seed into growth during our dry season
without water. The sugar beet industry
will become of immense Importance to
any country; simply because with a
system of irrigation we can set out and
harvest sugar beet every day of the
year, never letting the factory go idle, as
must be the case in all other States of
the Union. The cultivators of the sugar
beet and other products will soon find
out the value of the irrigating stream,
and pay an aggregate OF great
value into the City Treasury for
the use of the fertilizing liquid.
For years to come all the sewage will be
thus absorbed by the land, not reaching
the ocean. 1t will, therefore, not be
necessary at present to build as far as
the sea. Again, as the matter will be
discharged all along the line through
laterals, the main sewer need not be by
far as large and as costly as il the whole
amount had to be conducted all the dis
tance.
1t is, therefore, urgently to be recon-
mended that the sewer be built on q
higher level, and that arrangements be
made to utilize that matter, diluted by
our irrigation water, for enriching our
lands, and producing valuable increase
to the city. f. WIEsENDENGER.