The State - News from Dec. 20, 1988

A state agency confirmed neighborhood fears of an abnormally high rate of birth defects in an area of San Jose which, for years, has been plagued by the odor of rotting eggs from a sewer line. The Birth Defects Monitoring Program found that birth defects in the Nightingale Drive area were 15 times higher than expected. It also found that the number of low-birth-weight babies in the area was three times higher than the average. The city is building a new sewer line, after having been cited five times for air quality violations by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.