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Show fVvkv. Unh 20. NtRAlO OAUV AVI All KIToits (o block junk mail slowed lyndsey Layton You've Got Mail WASHINGTON -C- hris Pearson, a state legislator in Vermont, had a sense that the when he with people bill last a November proposed to allow residents to bkxk junk The Postal "standard' mail DON BARTLETTILos Angeles Times Jose Romo, a zanjero for 32 years, uses a yardstick to calculate water flow through a valve. "In the future we will act less as a zanjero and more like a technician. ... it's inevitable," he says. ness groups are pretty said Pearson, whose bill remains in committee. Barred by law from the Postal Service is nonetheless trying to make its case before a growing number of state legislatures that are weighing bills to create Do Not registries, which are simi- - Slmving with the flow g, Zanjeros endangered in area stricken by drought lartothe popular National Do Not Call Registry. The agency has printed 3,000 "inf croation packets" about the econottricvalue of standard mail, with specific data tor each ot the 18 states that have considered a Do Not Mail Registry. It has dis- Mike Anton LOS ANGELES TIMES patched postmasters to testify before legislative committees around the country. "The Postal Service has come in and clobbered legislators," said Todd PagLia, executive director of ForestEthics, an environmental group that has collected 289,000 signatures on an online petition to Congress that calls for a National Do Not Mail Registry. "It's really a interest kind of battle." The Postal Service is working closely with the Direct Marketing Association, the trade.group that represents retailers and the printing industry, in its new campaign which Mail Moves America is designed to quash the Do Not in the Carrot Daybreak the World Calif., horizon is . Pict ot mail, in billions Standjid s W pynwnt&) ah CJtiltys Other 11.9 TOTAL i 2001 c 2007 t Ut 'ft 101.7 tinSl 9S.9 (Down SOURCE U S 207 J 7.5) Other 12.8 (Down billion 212.2 billion 7.9) Postal Servic M tMSMINCTOW POST aware of the environmental concerns related to junk mail. In testimony on Capitol Hill last week, Postmaster General John E. Potter told lawmakers that the Postal Service has one answer: Recycling bins positioned beneath personal mailboxes at post offices, to catch junk mail as it tumbles out. cool to the idea of a registry that prohibits marketers from sending mail to those enrolled and that fines violators. One reason may be that most environmental groups are themselves junk mailers. They use standard mail for their solicitation letters. Postal officials say they are sundance Sun i. Jyl fmmmifvmf i Join m for fmer Bmnfh in fbp rawdfy GrM, lQfwn- -6 pro &4m Mar ' 'v . DON BARTLETTILos Angeles Times streaked with lilac clouds, the air thick with the smell of ma- Jorge Ponce, an irrigator, adjusts the flow of water into a nure. Jose Romo climbs into carrot field. Zanjeros deal often with irrigators, poorly paid a pickup with a steaming cup field hands from Mexico who work brutally long shifts. of coffee to ward off the chill and begins his daily race with basin locked in an extended water. "I love my job. The He speeds along dirt roads drought that threatens to between fields of lettuce and is empty Lake Mead in Nevada early morning and Lake Powell on the Arizoonions that would be a desert if not for the 1,600 miles of exhilarating. The sense na-Utah border, the Imperial man-mad- e faces canals and ditches Valley changes that will of freedom that we can alter the rhythm of life along that crisscross the Imperial make certain decisions canals named Pear and Plum, Valley, among the nation's Dogwood and Daffodil, Eucalargest irrigation systems. and are in control He stops and studies the walyptus and Elder. ter level in his canal. It's rising agreement, In of something. the theUnder a 2003district eventubut still below a stain on the irrigation future we will act less ally must transfer 9 percent ; Mail initiatives. canal's concrete wall, a meaSo far, their efforts appear of its river allotment to San suring point that Romo trusts as a zanjero and more Diego and the Coachella Valeffective. None of the states implicitly through experience. where Do Not Mail legislation In a few minutes, the water ley to the northwest. Limitalike a technician. ... has been introduced since 2007 reaches the stain, signifying tions and the sudden need to i It's inevitable." has approved a law. And no conserve have shaken an area sufficient pressure for Romo similar legislation is pending in where water once was considto crank a rusty metal jack Jose Romo that opens a wooden gate. ered inexhaustible. Congress. "Can lose a finger if you're Sean Sheehan of the Center 53, a zanjero for 32 years Signs of change already abound. Fields lie fallow. Giant for a New American Dream, not careful," he said. a progressive group based in earthmovers march across With a loud swooosh, a Takoma Park, Md., said state the desert, replacing a wall of water moves down his canal. For the next several fate, the dispenser of good efforts may precede national segment of the the valley's link with and evil, to be blessed by turns Canal action, just as they did with the hours, Romo will repeat this Do Not Call Registry, with a the Colorado River and cursed by turns, and to ritual again and again, harconcrete-line- d "Federal legislators are more channel that receive both with the utter nessing gravity to shepherd will prevent seepage. sensitive to the heavy lobbying the day's water through his unconcern of a small god," of the paper industry, as well as With each drop of water ' corner of the valley. said the Century Magazine in New York, describing the job Romo is a "zanjero" the impact on the postal service, needing to be accounted for, o in 1902. whereas a lot of state legislaan irrigation system that pronounced tors arareally more in tune hasn't changed much since for of overseer Today, the zanjero is an enSpanish with local needs," Sheehan said. the mother ditch. His job is to dangered species, his craft too the 1950s increasingly will "It's local governments that deliver prescribed amounts of imprecise, his tools too crude move to remote sensors and have to pay millions to truck Colorado River water to farm- to look after water in a region automation. For the zanjeros that trash out to landfills." who still calculate water ers served by the Imperial Irri- ravaged by drought. So far in the 2008 campaign flows using a yardstick and The Imperial Irrigation gation District in southeastern California. It's a job rich in District, which provides wacycle, the Direct Marketing recently were issued mobile Association has made $141,877 tradition, one that mirrors the ter to nearly 500,000 acres of phones the changes will be in contributions to federal settlement of the West and its farmland in the valley hard profound. "I love my job. The early candidates, including $6,610 to complicated relationship with against the Mexican border, is Sen. Thomas R. Carper, water. among the last to employ zan- morning is exhilarating. The who chairs the subcommittee sense of freedom that we can The zanjero was once the jeros working the traditional that oversees the Postal Sermost powerful man in any way. More than 100 men labor make certain decisions and vice and does not face are in control of something," around the clock controlling community, entrusted with until 2012. said Romo, 53, a zanjero for the flow of more than 1 triloverseeing its most valuable 32 years. "In the future we lion gallons of water a year, resource. In early Los AngePerhaps surprisingly, enviwill act less as a zanjero and ronmental groups whose les, he was paid more than largely by hand. "You learn to appreciate members say they are conmore like a technician. ... It's the mayor. Long before he inevitable." and respect water," said Joe cerned about junk mail are engineered the city's future, MariscaL 53, a zanjero for 27 William Mulholland, whose story was depicted in the film years. "You appreciate what it "Chinatown," learned the nubrings us in terms of food and iiwiiuiiiiiii w life. But you respect it because pippiw w ances of water working as a it do lot can of a when zanjero. damage it's not controlled." "He is the yea and nay of With the Colorado River the arid land, the arbiter of ice is defending more hfavtly on knitum to the rest of us as "funk mat!" formwueastheuseoffint-classmaildixHnes- mail He got media att ent ion, radio interview requests and from constituents eager to stop the credit card offers, furniture catalogs and store fliers that increasingly clog their mailboxes. 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