It’s spring in the Central Valley when the Fresno County Planning Commission’s thoughts turn to . . .
. . . granting a permit for a toxic aggregate mega-mine on Native American burial grounds smack dab in the middle of prime orchard country where the cattle and horses peacefully graze.
Dumb idea. You’d think, huh?
See the little mountain in this picture? Now imagine it leveled by Cemex, the Mexican multinational concrete company. Imagine blasting noise, imagine dust, imagine the air pollution you can’t see, the ground water pollution from the facility seeping into farmers’ wells. Imagine the trolleys running up and down the side of the hill carrying the mountain down rock by rock.
Imagine the cherry orchards covered in dust, the fields of poppies buried under it.
And all for road-building materials that studies show Fresno County won’t need for thirty years!
Well, not without a fight.
Tomorrow a bunch of us are coming down off the Sierras to speak in front of said planning commission. It’s times like this I remember what Gandhi said. “What you do is unimportant. That you do it is of the utmost importance.”
That was Gandhi’s way of saying,”Time to cow-girl up!”
I’ll be there with a hundred or more people, staring down the high-paid lawyers from Cemex. Let’s not forget what a small group of determined individuals can do, and my friends, I am one of them. Just ask Dave!
If you live in the Bay Area or Los Angeles, you may think what happens in the Central Valley doesn’t affect you.
Think again.
The next time you’re at the fancy-schmancy San Francisco Ferry Building Farmer’s Market with the Hoity and the Toity, ask where the stuff comes from. Half the time it’s from the Central Valley, from right here.
Next week, I’ll post an update to this story and tell you ways you can help.
