The State - News from Sept. 9, 1988

Big landowners in the Westlands Water District in western Kings and Fresno counties have remained big despite reclamation reform attempts to reduce their size, critics charged. A report released by the California Institute for Rural Studies called for a congressional investigation of what it considers violations of the 1982 Reclamation Act that was aimed at reducing the size of holdings. The institute also called on the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to implement stricter regulations on eligibility for subsidized irrigation water and to remove land with major drainage problems from production. Drainage water from much of the 600,000-acre Westlands district contains salt and selenium, an element blamed for bird deaths and deformities at Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge, forcing closure of drainage ponds there.