Our colleague, Steve Burke, founder of Protect our Water (POW), Vance Kennedy and Al Brizard -- two other veteran public activists in Stanislaus County -- joined forces to produce a very convincing argument against Modesto Irrigation District's proposed water transfer to San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. They write from the authoritative view that MID is a local public utility created by the Wright Act of 1887, written by C.C. Wright, state assemblyman from Modesto at the time. The act was the first in the US to create publicly governed irrigation districts to combat private water pirates like Henry Miller of Miller Lux Cattle Company, who bought riverfront land wherever he could, gaining control of the river's water through the law of riparian rights.