Valley Voice Newspaper

Big Stink Over Valley Dairy Plans

San Joaquin Valley - These guys are not going away.

The Center for Race and Poverty and the Environment is apparently preparing new challenges to two dairy plans adopted in the past few weeks in both Kings and Tulare counties continuing a battle to force both regulators and operators to tighten environmental standards. Look for court action in coming days, say reliable sources.

The Delano-based environmental group funded by the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation has been up and down the central valley over the past year filing lawsuits against expansions of “mega dairies” in Kern, Tulare and Kings counties. John Labendiera, field rep for the trade group Western United Dairymen, says the Center will keep objecting to dairy expansion even after projects go the extra mile to meet their concerns. In the Boswell case “first they said there were water pollution problems, and the applicant showed that was taken care of and then they went on to dust and that was mitigated and now it’s air emissions. It’s never good enough for them.”
Portions of the lawsuits appear to be virtual carbon copies of suits filed in neighboring jurisdictions with only the applicants names changed. Clearly the legal action amounts to a campaign - one that has had some victories.

Their success in one place will now be used to push higher standards elsewhere.
In Kings County they forced the JG Boswell project to do a full environmental review of their proposed sale of four new dairy sites out on the lakebed prompting inclusion of best available technology to limit both water and air pollution. Still, attorney for the Center, Caroline Ferrell says neither the Kings County approval of the new Boswell plan is good enough - nor is the Tulare County adoption of new animal confinement rules just last week “adequate.”
Observers believe the Center will file suit against the Kings County adoption of the new Boswell dairy plan likely before the ruling takes effect May 3rd.

Environmental manager for Boswell Dennis Tristao says attorneys for his company would seek to throw the lawsuit if it is filed out on summary judgement. But that if that was not successful, a suit could drag on another 2 and ½ years. Already Boswell’s Chamberlain Ranch project has been awaiting approvals for 2 years.

In Tulare County where the Board of Supervisors just last week adopted new animal confinement regulations with approval of a programmatic EIR Ferrell points out that “they’ve done far less than the effort put forward by (Boswell’s) Chamberlain Ranch” objecting to the fact that the Tulare EIR doesn’t force either the County or operators to control air emissions - particularly methane gas, ammonia and volatile organic compounds - a precursor to smog. In the case of Boswell’s plan they did include a requirement that a methane capturing system be part of the new dairies, says Dennis Tristao.

The gas is measured in tons. In the case of the controversial Borba diary in Kern County -this one project with 28,000 cows would produce some 2657 tons of methane in a year. The Boswell diary plan is about double that size.

In Tulare County, the US number one dairy county there are already 336,000 cows and not including replacement animals but there are pending applications for at least 56 new operations with a total of adding some 150,000 more cows according to Tulare County planning department.
Ferrell claims the adoption of the new dairy EIR in Tulare County will likely be challenged. “We’re not sure what way we will challenge the decision whether by appeal or lawsuit,” says Ferrell. She says the challenge could come to dairy operators instead of the County as they seek to get their permit. “We’d rather the County fix their EIR,” so they would have to go after individual operators he says. When the state Attorney General challenged the Tulare County approval of three dairies in 1998 it held up the approval process for a growing number of proposed dairy operators wanting to come in or expand.

“We’re processing diary permits now,” says the County’s chief planning official, George Finney. County Planner Roberto Brady says as a result of the Supervisors action some long stalled dairy project permits will be set for hearing with at least the setting of the hearings coming in the next few weeks. Even if all the projects were approved in the next year, it might be five years before Tulare County saw its cow population go up to near 500,000 cow range, he says.

The Center could challenge new operators to carry out a higher degree of mitigation than they are forced to do by Tulare County.

Of concern to regulators is both the emission of ammonia and methane gas by cattle. A recent study suggests cattle produce about 50 lbs of ammonia a head per year. Ammonia is precursor to PM-10m - a problem pollutant in the Valley. Regarding methane, the stuff is considered “the second most significant greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming,” says the new Tulare County EIR. Dairy waste contributes about 30% of all US emissions of methane says the report. Dairy lagoons are as much as 70% methane. Anaerobic digester systems offer an opportunity to recover the methane for commercial energy production, notes the report.

But bottom line for the County is that there is no agreement who will regulate air emission from dairy animals. There are no current federal standards although the Valley Air Board is working on the Valleywide PM study to identify components of particulate in our air. Dairies are currently exempt from any permitting activity from the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control Board. Simply put nobody is regulating the stink.

In the case of Tulare County the adoption of the recent EIR by Tulare County called the emission of methane “a significant cumulative impact” to the degree the air emissions are precursors to PM-10 emissions and ozone. The pollutants are called a “significant unavoidable impact.” Improved dietary intake and proper lagoon care can “manage” the methane problem and reduce emission. But how you regulate that?

Dairy rules in the Valley already call for a separation of dairy projects from urban areas to reduce the nuisance as well as use of dairy waste on crop land and a decrease in allowable densities of confinement facilities to reduce pollutant problems.

The Center’s indication that they might challenge the Tulare EIR or go after the individual dairymen would be back to square one - before the state Attorney General filed suit last April to stop construction of three dairy projects. The County did their programmatic EIR so individual dairymen didn’t have to meet the state’s tough environmental quality law - CEQA. UC Cooperative Extension diary advisor Tom Shultz says it’s his understanding that the County has submitted the new EIR to Attorney General Lockyear’s office for comment.

It will apparently be the Center’s position that Tulare County could mandate dairymen to reduce their methane emissions and the resulting air pollution components by adding technology - technology that could easily cost the dairymen $60 to 150 per cow per year, says Shultz. Initial investment on an anaerobic digester that collects the gas at the dairy lagoon and can turn that gas into electricity can cost an initial investment of $250,000, says Dennis Tristao of Boswell. Nevertheless, Boswell’s plan calls for the four dairies to mitigate their pollution problems - with a “menu of options that include aerobic or anaerobic digesters or other measures,” says Tristao. That is a higher standard than required in Tulare County.

But Tulare County officials and others argue that there is no standard for emissions reduction that dairymen can shoot for. “It’s only in the past few years that anyone became concerned to even make an inventory of what we have out there (in the way of emissions),” says farm advisor Tom Shultz who is working with state and EPA regulators now to do such an inventory. “The question becomes in the real world what do you do about it?”

Shultz points out that “there is no doubt the Central Valley has the cow power to produce electricity for a lot of homes out there” using methane capturing systems. “If someone were to provide low interest loans to put in the systems, we might see them take off.”

One methane capturing system - Roy Sharps Tulare hog farm gained national recognition. But with low pork prices in recent years the company has closed its operation. The cost of adding more and more and more to the new permit could hurt the industry in the Valley worries Labendiera. “The technology is evolving and there is still not certainty over its feasibility,” he says. “Dairymen have no firm number to gauge what such technology will really cost if they make electricity,” he says.

At least one company said they had a manure collection plan to take cow waste to a central plant to process it removing the concern over this waste problem and centralizing the power production. But dairy reps don’t know if such a plan amounts to cow pies in the sky. But regulatory pressure prompted by the Center’s push the EPA could turn such a scenario into reality.

Unlike Tulare and Kings counties the Center doesn’t have strong local constituency for their tilting at windmills battle except in Kern County where the proposed Borba dairy project and others have roused the ire of citizens groups who have whipped the issue up in the public attention.

In Tulare and Kings advocates point to the job creation aspect of new dairies wondering out loud how the Center with its name implies a willingness to battle poverty could oppose an industry that offers employment to so many poor people. In Tulare County the dairy expansion could bring a number of dairies near Alpaugh where unemployment rates run over 50% all year long. But here is where a number of Center “clients” say they are concerned about the coming of mega dairies nearby. Some are calling a 1500 cow operation - a mega dairy even though it has the low end of an average in Tulare County dairies these days. Tulare County average dairy size has overshadowed the Midwestern average of a couple hundred cows. But that has been why Tulare County’s dairies can thrive in low price environments like today compared to other regions advocates say. Still there are mega dairies out there - with 10,000 animals and more. Even brokers like John Grimmus say there will be a time we reach our current capacity here. In the meantime new dairy permits are being requested in all parts of the County. Sales of milk are expected to reach $1 billion in Tulare County this year. Helping to improve the local economy recently is the boom in cheese making. Tulare County by itself already makes nearly a quarter of the state’s cheese. New plants in Tulare and Lemoore promise nearly a half billion investment in plants and people and secondary spinoffs in the next few years.

But if the Center is successful in tying up Kern, Tulare and Kings counties from expanding their dairies or making this region uncompetitive because of the added costs - we could lose the one big growth engine - the alternative to low returns on cotton farming - and an industry that has fueled a huge processing industry and an explosion of jobs.

Alternatively, if all new dairies put in methane capturing technology, there could be a tremendous waste to energy business in the San Joaquin Valley. “The question will be who foots the bill,” says Tom Shultz.

The new chair of the Assembly Ag Committee, Dean Florez, says he believes “The Center’s real goal is to have no dairies” and that is the wrong approach. Still “we’re concerned about the long term viability of the state’s dairies” and says he plans a public hearing in August in Tulare County to air these issues. “If dairies need to invest in new technology I would push for low interest loans to be made available to a dairyman that would benefit the industry and the environment.”

Thirsty LA Seeks H2O

Seeking to firm up its water supply in dry years and kick-start the marketing of water in the state Metropolitan Water District (MWD) of Los Angeles has sought proposals for supply drinking water in coming dry years. Surprising or not at least five central valley farming operations who often complain they are low on water filed proposals to be a supplier.

“Responses to our requests came back March 8th,” says MWD spokesperson Adan Ortega. “We have a goal of signing a contract for 100,000 acre feet of firm water supply” to be available to the 27 cities in the southland in dry years he says. He says new players are coming forward now “but the water market in the state is just now developing.” Proposals from farming entities could mean that water becomes a “crop” in county “Crop Reports” in coming years.

In the case of the competitive bidding J.G. Boswell has joined with the water marketing company Azurich (a spinoff of Enron) to become the supplier of this “dry year option” as MWD is calling it. Boswell has access to an estimated 400,000 acre feet of water annually, reported to be the nation’s largest farmer with 150,000 acres under cultivation. Their biggest supply of water comes from the Kings river although they have Kaweah water rights and get state water project supply. The latter is expected to be the supply they offer MWD since at times they get more than they need. The plan would be sell an option to the water for the contract and give notice to the farming company that instead of planting crops on some land in a coming season - MWD would exercise the option to get the 100,000 acre feet of water it needs to help supply their 17 million customers in southern California.

According to a Wall Street Journal article the supply would be at a cost of as much as $530 per acre feet. LA just completed a massive new reserve reservoir that is costing them more like $2500 per acre feet for water for a supply of 800,000 acre feet.

Farmers pay a range of $10 to 100 per acre feet for water that could sell for far more to urban customers. In a time when commodity prices have sunk - it’s an alternative big cotton farmers like Boswell and Westlands might consider.

CVP contractor Westland Water District is also on the list of Valley companies who have made an offer to supply MWD. The district is already water short with some lands being idled because of a lack of firm water supply. This year federal allotment could be as low as 60%. Another Kern County supplier listed by MWD as a possible supplier as well - Rosedale-Rio Bravo Storage District.

Cadiz Water Company, listed as a supplier has Kaweah River rights.

Azurich was attempting to purchase water rights in Madera in recent months but were rebuffed in part because locals feared they would suck water out of the San Joaquin River area just to market it to urban areas like LA who can afford to pay far higher prices than farmers.

Agriculturalists here are generally skeptical of water marketing plans that would relocate traditional supplies away from growing regions although water trades have been part of the industry for years, notes water expert Dennis Keller - particularly in dry years.

Concern about loss of water from an area is involved in the controversy over the Tulare Irrigation District’s plan to line a canal from the federal water - Friant Kern Canal into Tulare. Some critics say they suspect TID is doing that to sell the highly prized water to a higher bidder.

Two plans involving water exports from this area include a plan announced by supervisor Bill Maze to draft a local ordinance prohibiting export of ground water out of the County. Also the Kaweah/St. Johns River Association is working on a draft agreement that would ask all Kaweah river users to agree they would not export river water out of the watershed. That would include TID.

TID general manager Gerald Hill says the district “has some concerns” about any ban on selling river water rights. “We feel it’s a private property right” that could be sold to whoever would want to buy it locally or otherwise here.” TID owns stock in some water companies in the Kaweah along with private property owners who don’t farm. “We are concerned that if this new rule come to legislation there could be problems,” says Hill. Hill says TID is not a party to the MWD proposal. “However we expect waterbank the Friant water” and an export ban “could make water exchanges difficult in the future” and might be opposed by the Bureau of Reclamation he suggests. Couching what Boswell is doing with LA as an exchange - LA gets water in a dry year and pays Boswell back in wet years - may make the whole thing look less a water grab as some believe.

TID and opponents are waiting this week for a ruling by a Sacramento judge expected April 21 on the lining project.

Regarding the upcoming decision by Judge Robie, Hill says that even if the judge does not favor the current EIR they will go back in 6 months to try it again. In the meantime he says TID is working with landowners in the Kaweah delta about a possible alternative to lining the canal - an assessment district to compensate for TID’s water loss. One scenario would be to have the landowner annex themselves into the TID district, he says. “We’re in contact with the leadership on this,” he says. He says it’s too early to tell if this idea will work out.

Besides LA’s water quantity problem prompted by urban growth there and a reduced access to the Colorado River supply for the region MWD has water quality problems. Both water from the state water project and the Colorado River is high is salts and other impurities which involves a high cost of removing them. The Colorado River alone brings in 600,000 tons of salts to the system and every 100 milligrams of salt per liter costs $95 million to remove estimates MWD. That adds costs to replace plumbing fixtures in the Southland and prompts the district to look at plans like recycling toilet water to get by.

In what has been called “very preliminary discussions” Friant water users and MWD officials have had talks about using pure Friant Water - which is San Joaquin River water that has had virtually no impurities - in a trade for investment in more storage or state water LA is entitled to, to help improve the MWD quality problems (see last issue of the Valley Voice.)

MWD is set to select a supplier for the dry year option this summer.

Land Trusts Will Merge

Tulare County - Three Tulare County land trusts have voted to merge in recent weeks creating the new Oaks To Tules Land Trust, says Carole Combs staffer with the Three River Kaweah Land Trust. The three that include the Four Creek Land Trust, Tule River Land Trust and the Three Rivers’s group voted in principles last month to merge. But the vote at each trust to move forward “was tight in our case,” says Brian Newton of the Visalia-based Four Creeks group.

The new trust will promote “stewardship and protection for natural, scenic, historic and agricultural lands in the Kings, Kaweah, Tule and Kern watersheds,” says Combs.

Combs says the group is not associated with government and seeks to protect these lands through “market driven, voluntary” methods.

A large organization would enable the trust to seek grants to expand operations as well as enlarge their clout as good planning advocates. “We’ll have an office in Visalia with two staffers,” says Combs and seek to be incorporated by July 2000.

The Four Creeks Land Trust has the Kaweah Oaks Preserve east of Visalia and recently acquired the new Herbert Preserve west of Lindsay. The Kaweah group has the large Double Eagle Ranch operated as a preserve adjacent Sequoia National Park. Tule River also has land that has been donated through an estate planning gift. Donors can gain significant tax benefits from gifts of lands or conservation easements.

The Kaweah and Tule groups are currently working to pull “noxious weeds” that can take over stream side vegetation along both rivers at outdoor education events April 28/29 (phone 561-1915). Public education is a major effort of the land trust to preserve “critical lands” in tact for future generations. As such the land trust movement unite efforts by both environmentalists and farm preservationists here.

Another common “educational” method is to sponsor nature walks in the Kaweah for example. On Saturday, May 6 the Kaweah group is sponsoring a walk of the historic Davis ranch, a 500 acre ranch located between Dry Creek and Northfork of Kaweah River. The Davis Ranch was purchased as “mitigation lands” for the expansion of Lake Kaweah. Development interests who take over natural lands typically mitigate the development through purchase of natural lands they seek to preserve. In this way the trust works with developers in many cases.

The land trust is not political although in recent weeks the Four Creeks Land Trust has taken a position against the Tulare Irrigation District’s concrete lining plans near the Kaweah Oaks Preserve. The land trust filed a friend of the court brief with Judge Robie who is expected to make a decision on the controversial plan in the next week. Under the new merged umbrella, the trusts will maintain their separate branches.

Uniting the land trusts could tie the movement to other conservationist groups up and down the state including the San Joaquin River group. One possible goal of the land trusts are to tie the watersheds in ribbon like protection districts along river corridors that could extend for miles. The primary vehicle for this could be voluntary conservation easements by all district land owners that limit land use along these river corridors. In the Porterville area the Tule River Parkway Association is working to keep the Tule a natural spot tied together.

Giant Move

by Miles Shuper

Visalia - It will be one giant leap for the Giant.

As a result, the 25-ton sculpted College of the Sequoias mascot will be moved from the site it has occupied for more than 45 years to make room for a new music arts building on the Mooney Boulevard campus.

The statue, a gift from the 1954 and 1955 classes of the Visalia college, will be relocated at the circle drive in front of the flag pole facing Mooney. The move will be made in 30 to 80 days by Forcum Mackey Construction, Inc. The local firm is building the 12,0000 square foot music arts building to be located south of the COS Theater at a cost of $3.5 million. The project, which began in January, is expected to be completed in about 14 months, according to Dr. Don Goodyear, executive vice President of COS.

The statue was crafted by renowned sculpture Carroll Barnes in his Three Rivers studio He is the same artist who sculpted the redwood statue of Paul Bunyon which originally graced the entrance to Sequoia National Park and now stands in front of the Paul Bunyon Inn in Porterville.

The COS Giant, which has guarded the Visalia campus since the mid-1950. Also contains a plague and box of mementoes placed in the base when the huge sculpture was placed on campus. A committee is formulating plans for a possible “walk of fame” to be constructed around the new site of the Giant, according to Dr. Goodyear.

Richard Combs of Three Rivers who as COS student body president at the time presided as master of ceremonies during the unveiling, recalls working with other committee members in selecting the statue design.

“Barns, who had done lots of redwood carvings, originally wanted something a little more avant gard, as I recall. The first one he sketched was of a giant laying down with a bird on his shoulder.” Combs said. We looked at a couple more before settling on the final design, he said. Janet Loffland Moffett, president of the sophomore class of 1954, agreed with Combs that the artist’s first suggestions were a little more “artsy” than the student committee favored. She also recalled that one design featured Johnny Appleseed. Moffett remembers making several trips to the artists studio in Three Rivers to help make the final design selection and to see the work in progress. She has vivid memories of the excitement the night the statue was unveiled with bright lights and a fairly decent crowd.

Combs said the plaque and the box of mementos were placed in the base of the statue by John Laird, chairman of the 1954 sophomore gift committee and Roger Pelz, the 1954 student commissioner of finance.

Kristen Reisner, COS spokesperson, said the original time capsule is still in the statue and that a second cylinder placed in the Giant in the early 1990s to mark the college’s 65th anniversary has been removed but not opened. Although plans are not final she expects there may be some type of ceremony and possible opening of the original time capsule when the move is made.

A campus committee is currently discussing plans for a walk of fame to be constructed on a new base for the statue which would be part of a fund raising project.

Combs, retired from the U.S. diplomatic service and a Three Rivers resident, recalls helping build the forms for the base of the statue along with the colleges construction arts instructor. Combs, a member of the COS hall of Fame, said Laird, a COS football standout was the model for the Redwood Giant.

Both Combs and Moffett said they have no problems with the move since the campus will be improved with the addition of the new music building and are glad the statue will remain in site of those who travel Mooney. They think the impressive Mascot , carved from a Giant Sequoia, is a fitting symbol of the area and the statue of the college.

Akers/198 To Be One Busy Place
More Projects Loom on Southwest Corner

Visalia - The new 198 freeway project is set to be completed this Fall meant to relieve traffic along the busy corridor into Visalia. But by any measure the coming of the big $100 million plus project is drawing development proposals that will add to traffic in west Visalia before there is much chance of relief.

At all four corners to the entrance to Visalia - Akers and 198 there are projects already built or underway that were former pastures, fields or even a municipal sewer farm in recent memory. Some of the hottest development properties out there are still zoned for ag.

On the N/W corner the Mission Oak 9 acre office park is nearing build out with scores of upscale offices. On the northwest corner a new Fairfield Inn hotel, office complex that includes the County and new Denny’s restaurant and gas station too are under construction or soon will be.

At the southeast corner a new multi story physicians office is being planned by Dr. Barry Smith. The busiest quadrant could be the S/W corner of Akers and 198 where a new shopping center owned by Westland Development is in the planning stage, adjacent the new Cigna office where next month about 800 employees will move into.

Already across the street four large medical related complexes including the very popular Lifestyle Center bring a flood of people to the area every day. Kaweah Delta and a partner plan a new retirement village just east on Cypress.

The latest development is a plan by owners of Sierra Village - the retirement village to build a new assisted living facility on 26 acres the nonprofit organization purchased recently to the west of the new Westlands shopping center. Unlike the Westland property to be purchased from the city of Visalia, the Sierra Village property requires annexation into the city limits. Both the Westland project and the Sierra Village assisted living plan are located on land now zoned for agriculture setting off perhaps a new land use debate in the area.

Now comes word the city is struggling with expected traffic counts anticipated when all this development hits. A traffic study expects 20,000 cars to pour off the freeway onto Akers. The city is looking for a way to move traffic out of the Westland’s shopping center. They want to extend Cypress to the west clear to Roeben - a plan that would pose problems to the Sierra Village people and their plan for an assisted living project.

“We met with the city recently and they were cooperative,” says Andy Anema, Sierra Village development director.

Now the city plans to curve Cypress around the village project to connect to Roeben. Then comes a controversial aspect to a recent traffic study. The study shows Cypress extending to Shirk into the scenic corridor area - a project that if it becomes real would actually generate more traffic into the village area fears Anema. “We thought Tulare Ave. would be a better route since it is a collector,” he says.

Engineer John Dutton of the city says the traffic study doesn’t mean the city intends to extend Cypress to the west. Traffic studies to measure alternatives are typical he says.
Extending Cypress would be a growth inducing move that would likely mean development would follow some believe. Already there are tire kickers for the property to the west of Sierra Village onto the plum orchards west of Roeben.

The latest struggle the city has been involved with is moving the Persian Ditch to accommodate the Westland shopping center. The city agreed to realign the ditch along the north end of the property making for a large open space visible from the freeway and setting back the project by 150 feet. The ditch company still has to agree. The 198 contractor would move the ditch as part of the agreement with the city having stored material on city land and using the land as a staging area for the freeway.

Westland plans include a fun park and restaurant and some retail stores. There is a purchase agreement to buy the 30 acres although the developer is still in the due diligence period. The city has to change the zone on the property to allow retail use as part of the deal.

Andy Anema, development director for Sierra Village says the new assisted living facility might house as many as 140 residents. The project also includes plans for a home nursing office that could provide service nearby to the village residents when needed. “We’re talking to Kaweah Delta about possibly staffing it,” he says.

All told the Sierra Village project could involve as many as 500 seniors at build out, involve an investment of as much as $30 million and employ up to 150 people.

The village broke ground in 1986 and now has some 50 residents. The company is owned by the same church group that founded Central Valley Christian and the elementary school. Including the schools in the proposed projects Sierra Village is expected to be more than 80 acres in west Visalia. That’s one reason why Anema says the city is cooperating with the project layout to wind Cypress around the proposed district. Still “we are worried about traffic that could impact the village.” The Christian schools themselves are generating traffic in the morning, then there is a new public high school to be built in the next year.

Already Cypress has a new signal in place. But lots more money will have to be spent in what is expected to be one busy couple of blocks in the next few years. The big question will be: Does all this development spur more plans to the West?

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