Sewage Crisis Plagues Tacoma's East Side
The filling of tide flats has caused a sewer to back up, creating a public health nightmare for hundreds of factory workers.
The story, cleaned up
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Employees of seven factories in the East Side, numbering about 300, are threatened with disease because the contents of a trunk sewer that drains that section is being allowed to empty on the ground near East Twenty-sixth and I streets. The sewer formerly emptied on the tide flats, but when the dredge began filling that section, the mouth of the sewer was closed. The contents are now backing up and flowing over the low land occupied by factories, including the Carman Manufacturing Company, the Pacific Box Company, and the Tacoma Soap Factory. The stench has become unbearable, and workers are breathing air laden with fumes. Manager Pratt of the Pacific Box Company has brought the matter to city authorities, but no steps have been taken to relieve the condition, threatening a payroll of $20,000 to $26,000 a month.
“Every slough and low spot in the vicinity is filled with sewage and the men employed in the factories are compelled to breathe air laden with fumes.”
This is a classic 'boosterism vs. infrastructure' clash. As Tacoma developed its industrial waterfront, the city ignored the environmental and public health costs imposed on the workers inhabiting those industrial zones—a tension that persists in modern urban planning.
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