In what can be termed as a rare diplomatic venture, Jared Blumenfeld – the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator for the Pacific Southwest region – Wednesday toured California’s dusty farming town of Kettleman City.

During the three hours spent in Kettleman City - a town located just off Interstate 5 nearly midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles -, Blumenfeld visited a nearby toxic waste dump and had emotional private conversation with women whose babies had birth defects.

Blumenfeld’s trip came within a week of his order of an in-house inquiry into his agency’s oversight of the waste dump, and following Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s directions to the state Department of Public Health for conducting a wide-ranging study of the poor farmworker community’s environmental and health issues.

Concerns have been vehemently raised about the waste dump by the residents of Kettleman City, who largely suspect that the dump is not only adding toxins to the community’s air, soil, and water, but is also causing birth defects in babies.

Health surveys of the area have revealed that least five of the 20 babies born in the community during the September 2007-November 2009 period, suffered from serious birth defects, like cleft palates and lips.

Refusing to divulge the details about his meetings with mothers of birth-defect babies, Blumenfeld said: “These are very emotional things to talk about. I want to respect that privacy.”