Rancher Fined $1 Million for Water Pollution
- Share via
A cattle ranch and its owner were ordered to pay $1 million for water pollution.
Masami Ishida, 70, is accused of discharging manure waste water from feedlots and retaining ponds at Masami Cattle Ranch into local creeks. The creeks feed into the Sacramento River.
Ishida was also sentenced to six months’ home detention as part of one year’s probation for violating the federal Clean Water Act, attorney John Vincent said.
Ranch foreman Manuel Madera Noriega, 46, received two years’ probation and was ordered to pay a $3,000 fine.
Masami Cattle Ranch, west of Corning, is part of an enterprise that includes MCR; Masami Foods, a slaughterhouse and meatpacking plant; and Marusho Co. Ltd. of Osaka, Japan, a wholesaler and distributor of meat in Japan. The 6,000-acre ranch has been in operation since 1989, maintaining 5,000 to 8,000 head of cattle.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
John Orr was a renowned fire investigator who was also a prolific arsonist, and whose thinly veiled novel helped to convict him. In this episode we hear from the fire captain who first suspected him—and from Orr himself.
Madison McGhee is joined by legendary Dateline host Josh Mankiewicz and esteemed L.A. Times Reporter Richard Winton as the three of them dive into all-things Menendez Brothers, the good, the bad, and the still unknown.
NPR climate editor Sadie Babits talks about why the media has long overlooked the climate crisis, and how that’s starting to change.
