Take Action!

Submitted by:

Jack Neff, Los Angeles CA

February 5, 2010

What more can I say, you know when you're approaching Kettleman City long before you arrive there because your nose and eyes, the things you smell and see with, begin to issue watery mucus as a protectant against the airborne particulate sludge coming up along the road. Home to the State's largest cattle feedlot, and Chemical Industries Hazardous waste dump, Kettleman City, in Kings County, California, does not have a lot of homes along the highway. In fact, the residents there have about the lowest per capita income of any rural community in the State, and the majority of the folks there speak only Spanish, as they are likely immigrant farm workers, living and working under conditions which would send any less-determined individual running for air and a shower. Driving north towards Kettleman City Interstate 5 comes up on a rising hill and the 1/2 mile long cattle feedlot the air takes on a viscous hue, which is downright Technicolor during hot weather. Everything that nobody wants is there, and I can never hold my breath long enough to drive through without it getting to me.