Westlands landowners showered with cash, workers get broken promises

In Fresno County, Westlands Water District is poised to spend several billion (with a b) dollars to clean contaminated soil and retire an additional 100,000 acres because of the same.

Not many years ago, Westlands retired 200,000 acres; Mendota the epicenter of “land retirement.” Mendota, San Joaquin and Firebaugh all were negatively effected. Mendota was reassured by Westlands mouthpieces and by our district politicians, “mitigation measures will be put into place” to assure that the communities that house the mighty work force that make Fresno County the most prosperous agricultural economy in the world, would survive.

I am miffed that the property owners of those first 200,000 acres retired were cashed out rather handsomely. The small towns within the district, such as Mendota, are surviving with the help of almost weekly food give-aways, Christmas Toys for Tots, utility bill payment assistance and government-subsidized housing.

Wow, thank you so much for those very generous handouts. Water is big business for some but even bigger for others. Just once I’d like to see a federal elected official do something for the hard-working people who can’t afford to donate thousands of dollars to their campaigns.

They’re the ones doing the back-breaking work that helps the wealthy get wealthier, thus able to fork over the big bucks. Oh yes, and I almost forgot about the drought.

This story was originally published September 21, 2015 at 9:39 AM with the headline "Westlands landowners showered with cash, workers get broken promises."