A rash of birth defects and infant deaths in the isolated crossroads town of Kettleman City is attracting national attention and putting a powerful face on conditions there.
Investigators finally are investigating whether there is a link between the defects and all that envelopes Kettleman City: a daily average traffic count of 41,200 cars and trucks on two highways, chemicals used on vast agricultural fields and a hazardous waste landfill.
While government agencies investigate, let's agree on one thing.
The 1,500 people of this Kings County community -- one of the most abused and poorest places in America -- deserve clean water.
Right now, they drink and bathe in water that contains higher levels than federal standards allow for arsenic -- although not high enough for regulators to ban drinking it. What's more, the town can't attract new business or accommodate establishments that want to expand because the community water district is at capacity.
Do you hear me, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Jim Costa? Folks in Kettleman City don't want a handout. They just want a water-treatment plant.
With more water, developers could partner with citizens to build badly needed affordable, sweat-equity housing.
With more water, the town can build its tax base.
And with extra tax money, they could afford the luxury of streets, sidewalks and gutters.
"We have a moratorium on building because we don't have the water," says Aletha Ware, who has lived in Kettleman City since 1968.
"People want to build. It's the only way we can grow." Ware and others have been trying to get the plant for five years.
Kings County has helped, forming a Redevelopment Agency for the town and loaning it $3 million. They need $4 million more. Despite hiring consultants and lobbyists to chase down grants, the county's requests have fallen on deaf ears.
This slap in the face is hard to imagine given that the water-treatment plant is "shovel ready," according to Kings County Supervisor Richard Valle, whose district includes the town.
"We have a great intersection," Valle says of the Interstate 5 off-ramps feeding into Highway 41, which is packed with fast-food franchises and gas stations. "If the businesses can expand, the money stimulates our RDA and success will trickle down to the residential area." What town in America would benefit as much from $4 million? What town in America sucks up as many diesel exhaust fumes in exchange for a per capita income of $7,389?
While Kettleman City goes without safe drinking water, money from the federal spigot flows freely for less worthy projects and out-and-out pork.
House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi sliced $5 million from the latest defense spending bill to turn the old officer's club at the Presidio into an information center and exhibit space.
Bay Area Democrat Mike Thompson delivered $54 million in stimulus money for flood control in an area where the Napa Valley wine train runs.
A water-treatment plant should be a higher priority than an information center at a closed army base. Largely because of urban encroachment, the Napa Valley floods every few years.
People in Kettleman City drink bad water every day.
Republican indifference, I understand.
But I thought that Democrats were supposed to stick up for the poor and underserved.
Maybe there's an asterisk in their mission statement: *Unless you live in Kettleman City.
"It seems like everybody is passing us by," Ware says. "We pay our taxes. We want our own."
Bill McEwen is a columnist for The Fresno Bee. You can reach him at bmcewen@fresnobee.com.
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