File this one under yuck.
Some inmates of the Maguire Correctional Center in Redwood City have taken to flushing foreign material down their toilets. Socks, underwear, food wrappers, hair brushes, jump suits, etc. The only limit apparently is their imagination. These are sometimes acts of rebellion, of effluent sabotage. I would expect also there are cases of getting rid of contraband or disposing of incriminating evidence.
But these are not victimless crimes. The offending matter makes its way through the pipes and ends up in the county sewers where it threatens to seriously jam up the pumps and apparatus that keeps the community sanitary. The South Bayside System Authority, which provides sewer service for the area, has had to install extra protective grating to filter out the solid waste and hire additional employees to keep the grates clear, scraping them several times a day.
So the authority sued the county and won a $2.3 million settlement to cover their additional expenses. And they also reached an agreement to take steps to reduce the flow of junk from the jail.
I’m glad in the end they’re able to get along, but shame on the miscreant flushers.
[Source: Mercury News]
The SF Water District sign in Redwood City is for the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct which runs through the city underground, then above ground in places on the north side of Edgewood Road through the hills, finally emptying into the Crystal Springs Reservoir west of Cañada Road. There is a small access building for the underground aqueduct on the east side of El Camino Real just south of Woodside Road.