The Parekhization of Los Angeles

Sitting in my old hometown, reading in the paper about the dirty water in my new hometown, I'm struck by how closely this situation resembles that of nineteenth-century Paris. Here the list of actants includes Dr. Pankaj Parekh, the Environmental Protection Agency, bromates, residents of Silver Lake (right near where I live), arsenic, manganese, Gambia and Liberia (where Parekh got his start), little plastic balls (similar to those McDonald's uses in their playpits!), thirty-year-old safety regulations, perchlorate ("an unregulated rocket fuel additive"), trichloroethylene ("a degreaser used in manufacturing"), perchloroethylene ("a dry-cleaning solvent"), military contractors, private water suppliers, the National Cancer Institute, and the Mulch and Soil Council ("'This could have a chilling effect on gardening'"). (How's that for a litany?) All saying different things, all wanting something slightly different, all connected to one another at some points but not at others. Only a Louis can save us now.