ABSTRACT
I n 1983 the Fish and Wildlife Service noticed that something had gone terribly wrong at the Kesterson Reservoir in central California's San Joaquin Valley: some of Kesterson's newly hatched waterfowl had crippling deformities. Beaks were grotesquely shaped, wings were missing, legs were twisted, and skulls were unformed; many birds died soon after hatching. The reservoir-ironically, part of the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge-had become hostile to its inhab itants, and the name "Kesterson" soon became synonymous with environmental disaster.
