The ‘Black Filth’ of Santa Barbara
Adding Sewer Pipes Cleaned Up State Street in the 1880s
By the 1870s there was growing concern over Santa Barbara’s lack of a proper waste disposal system. The old habits of dumping waste water into the unpaved gutters or using the water to irrigate gardens were becoming untenable. A systematic solution was needed.
Worries revolved around issues of public health and economics. Tourism was becoming an important industry in the 1870s as Santa Barbara developed a national reputation as a health resort. One newspaper complained about an especially noxious drain near Ortega and State streets in 1875, “If the councilmen wish the city to forfeit its reputation as a sanitarium for invalids, they will pursue their present course and allow the drain to remain in such a condition that the miasma arising from it is a cause of disgust to those who use the street whereon it is situated and spreads sickness among the surrounding houses.”
Discussion about construction of a sewer system continued for the next few years. A proposal for a $20,000 bond measure provoked such an outcry the idea was dropped, and officials contented themselves with enforcement of sanitation regulations and a periodic program of scraping the gutters clean of “black filth.”
