The San Francisco call., 1908-07-05

The outraged citizens Of the towns
Of AlVisO and Milpitas, which have
been rendered almost unit for habita-
tiOn. have made appeal and protest by
the score TO the city and county Off
cials. health boards and the press. In
every instance they have been abso-
lutely ignored.
The corporation passed out the word
TO the city and county ring that ii
thought the sewage would eventually
be good fertilizer for the reclaimed land
and that in addition TO remedy the
evil deliberately caused would cost
money. Anyway. il didn't want any
thing done Nothing was done, and the
peril has now grown to such proper
tions that the whole county and a great
part Of the city is up in arms.
With the coming Of summer. it is
pointed out by physicians, the danger
will be increased many fold. Great
swarms Of mosquitoes and house flies.
which are now breeding by myriads in
the fostering sloughs. will soon be
swept by the wind to all corners of
the county and they will carry with
them the germs of malaria. typhoid.
scarlet fever and dozens Of other dis
eases known TO be transmitted by in
sects.
HAYES BROTHERS BLAMED
The Hayes brothers. Red" and
ernment and most of the San Jose
press. are blamed by many citizens for
the continuance of the fearful sewer
conditions.
A delegation Of citizens from the
county called upon Hayes and de-
manded that his newspaper, the Mer-
curry, print the truth concerning the
situation in Alviso slough. The request
was denied. The committeeman then
sought the city board Of health. They
were told the county was responsible.
An appeal 10 County Health Officer
Simpson was rejected on the ground
that he considered it to be the city's af-
fair. The board Of supervisors proved
equally deaf
Stirred by the continued clamor for
relief. the city finally made a pretense
OF action by contracting with the recla-
nation company 10 take care Of the
sewage. That was six months ago. and
today the situation is simply that the
sloughs smell worse than they ever did.
SEWAGE ACCUMULATEs
Upon personal investigation a repre-
sentative of The Call found the sloughs
in an almost unbelievable condition.
When the situation was pointed out to
city and county officials in interviews
only evasive answers as to the issue
could be secured
Inc san Jose OutIall sewer. DullI
many years ago. is a rickety. worn out
wooden conduit for q large part of its
length. 1t extends 10 miles from San
Jose. emptying into Mallard slough.
At the end nearest the city the sewer
has recently been bricked, but the
terminus is of wood for a long dis
tanc and near the end is simply an open
ditch When the sewer was originally
constructed the tide which ran up into
cI oh "a ifa1 wa he afar
on it's ebb.
Since the completion Of the reclama-
tion dam. however. by the dummy cor
poration known as the Dumbarton i'm
provement company, the level of the
water in the sloughs has been lowered
many feet. and the reeking sewage has
accumulated to such an extent that the
water remaining in the seven miles of
sloughs has become Of the consistency
OF syrup.
The open ditch part of the sewer,
which runs for a mile near the town of
Alvfso. was found In a condition almost
impossible to conceive. Decaying car
casses Of animals fioated on the surface
Of a Shiny stream of slowly moving
putrid muck more than 10 feet deep.
Rlack bubbles boiled UP from sub
merged decaying flesh. Bones with bits
Of rotting flesh hanging to them swept
along with the lazily moving mass.
Under the rays of the midday sun the
stuff gave off an odor which almost
overcame the photographer who tried
10 picture IL.
FILTH IN THE SLOUGH
At the opening into the slough the
sewage had become clogged by brok-
en- flood gate, so that it must MI TO the
top and overflow TO md an outieL
Outside Of the ditch in the slough the
water had been turned a dense black