Neighbors raise stink over plant

Nobody looks forward to the expansion of the local sewer plant and neighbors of the North Valley Treatment Plant are no exception.

Saratoga Springs Unit 8, which is right next to the lot containing the sewer plant, is a gated community of homes which sold for $500,000 or more.

Constructed between 2002 and 2004, many of the houses were purchased during the boom years and homeowners are stuck riding out the market, should they seek to move.

So it is little wonder that a proposal to build a 42-acre, 13-foot deep lake of treated wastewater might concern the neighbors.

According to the county, the reservoir will fill up during the fall and winter and drain during the summer when the water will be used to irrigate fields.

County officials say the water in the reservoir will have undergone a second level of treatment with fewer than 30 milligrams per liter in dissolved solids.

When the North Valley Treatment Plant was built back in 1987 it didn't have a lot of neighbors. The same is true when it was expanded in 1993.

But in the intervening years, development has reached the site. It is hard for neighbors to claim they didn't know there was a sewer plant there, since one of the complaints is that residents can smell it on hot days.

As the population of the Valley grows, it will become increasingly difficult to find places for public facilities without starting a fight with the neighbors.

Needless to say neighbors of the reservoir are not going to be happy with the new water feature until the county's reassurances turn out to be true.