Hello out there.  We are excavating a kitchen dump on top of a cesspool dating
1891 - 1927 here on the campus of the University of La Verne.  I say cesspool
because the County of Los Angeles Health Dept. tells me it's too early for a
septic tank and that the main difference is a cesspool had no floor, only walls
and roof.  I've lowered a video camera down in and of course can't tell yet
whether there is a floor or not.  Questions---no methane gas detected, if we
get some big holes in the roof, OK to dig and screen?  Would you do it?  Am I
missing an obvious health risk here?  The cesspool was built for the Lordsburg
Hotel, never used as a hotel, served as a college from 1891 until demolished in
1927.  As to what I saw with the camera, "Things!  Wonderful things!"