‘A Settlement That’s All Wet’
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The Times article and editorial on the Westlands Water District settlement gave excellent coverage to one of the grossest of taxpayer subsidies.
You ought to tell your readers about the 15-year court battle this district fought against the 160-acre limitation of the Reclamation Act. The Central Valley water project was built by the federal government during the Depression with the idea that it would open up land for homesteaders and owner-operators.
By the time the court judgments came down against them, the owners of hundreds of thousands of acres in this district had, through one of the biggest lobbying efforts ever seen in Congress, secured a change in the Reclamation Act to make it cover a thousand acres, and not only that, but unlimited leasing and forgiveness for 15 years of illegal water use. In return a more realistic price was to be paid for water. Now even this “compromise” is to be circumvented, as The Times points out, by a settlement that continues the old price for 22 more years.
The public should indeed be aware of this “settlement,” and public pressure should be exercised to unsettle it.
LOIS K. VINCENT
Panorama City
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