The record-union., 1896-07-24
THE PROPOSED DRAINAGE RELIEF.

The Mayor of the city has issued an
appeal to the people to vote for the
drainage relief system proposed by the
city to the voters, and Involving an ex-
pense of $50. 600 The reasons set out
by the Mayor are strong and have led
the Record Union to make such new
and thorough and circumstantial inves-
tigation of the whole matter, as TO con-
vince it that the plan is not a sewer
system at all, but simply relief drain
age system that Will affect more
than wo-tairds of the city beneficially,
and that something of the kind is an alb
solute and immediate necessity.
The plan proposed does not meet our
judgment as the best that might have
been suggested. But 1t is, we are con-
vinced, the best the city can now get
or that it will be able to secure for years.
AS a matter Of expediency. therefore,
the proposed plan should be approved.
The Mayor points out that without relief
this winter the situation will be very
dangerous one. We are forbidden TO
pass the drainage waters beyond the Y
street levee through the lowlands below
the city; the municipality is threatened
with suits for allowing the waters to ac-
cumulate on the lots of the south end
There is every reason to believe that re-
covery can be had in these cases against
the city
In this emergency what is most expe-
dent? Last winter after heavy rains
the relief drains were choked so that
the water stood upon the streets in very
many cases. The coming winter that
situation will be repeated, and mean
while the people south Of r street viii
be, as they were last winter. in de-
plorable condition, practically flooded
out. We have all along said that these
have 1t at once. But the Record
Union has opposed any make-shift for
disposal of sewage. The official publica-
tfon OF the call for the election, the ex-
PLANTATION Of the Mayor. the examination
of all the data and of the plans and spe-
ciflcations, and of earlier plans drawn
by an engineer some time ago and who
is not related to the city government,
and which plans are almost identical
with those on which the vote is now 10
be taken, convinces us Of three things.
F'irSt-The plan Is not sewerage sys-
tenn Second-It does not prevent the
adoption Of a comprehensive sewerage
system. Thdrd-It permits that upon
which all sanitarians and all engineers
are agreed, namely, that in cities the
drainage and the sewerage systems
should be separate and distinct.
It L. conceded that the separate system
where chemical deposition. or any other
than gravitation discharge is necessary.
and chemical deposition may become ne
cessary for Sacramento. In such cases
It is the costliest policy possible to min
gle drain or surface waters and sewage
they must be handled separately.
We find these facts. that all the drain
age below the section east of Agricult-
ura1 Park is conducted to a single out
let at Sixth street; all that west of Fifth
street Is run back eastward to Sixth
street, instead of going directly south.
AT Sixth and r, where 1t ell assemblies.
Ii is led across to Y and Eighth street.
lifted to a pipe and flowed 5000 feet
TO the river.
We find that 1t Is simply impossible
for the accommodating drain, or what
may be termed the outfall pipe to re-
ceive all these waters. hence the south
enders are annually flooded out and
water backs up into lots clear up to I.
street The plan of drainage now pro-
posed-and which does not touch sew
erage plans which we should adopt In
the future, the very next thing, in
deed. after this drain scheme Is disposed
of-provides for a long drainway from
Seventeenth street along TO the water
front. It is a drainway that constantly
eulsrges, SO that at the outlet Is ss very