We believe it is up to all of us to look after each other, especially those who cannot make their voices heard.
The care we give each other reflects the kind of people we are. It is disturbing to us, as we understand the courses of events, that a few now are reaping the profits from recent decisions, and the many over the course of years in the future will pay the price.
Specifically:
- Under a proposed law moving through the California Legislature, the Castaic Lake Water Agency is absorbing control of the Newhall County Water District without a vote of residents in the district. The takeover provisions of SB 634 allow this to happen, thus avoiding hearing the voice of the people. So who really benefits?
- The massive housing project approved for construction on Highway 126 unquestionably puts thousands of cars on the already congested roadways. The emissions alone from these vehicles create pollution problems. So who really benefits?
- The approval of the 30-year extension of the Chiquita Canyon Landfill over the objections of residents who voiced concerns regarding health and traffic problems is symptomatic of those who do not take care of the voiceless.
We understand that more than 500 additional garbage trucks will be transporting trash daily from distant communities. Who really benefits from this?
Meantime, we have a piece of legislation, SB 634, allowing one water district to be created in the Santa Clarita Valley (although how exactly Waterworks District 36 fits in is still unclear). We also have a dump not wanted by the community, and we have a massive housing project planned for development near the unwanted dump. So who really benefits?
It also causes us to ask who is taking care of the innocents, those without a voice now but whose voices will be heard as time moves along. The issues of increased pollution, traffic congestion, health concerns of the young who will attend schools by the dump, and the innocents who will live in countless hostile conditions will be compromised because, it seems, a few profited from poor decisions now.
Who is taking care of the innocent? Are you? Do you care?
Susann Rizzo and Cliff Fletcher are Valencia residents.
