PLANADA, Calif.—David Rodriguez learned to swim in the canals near his childhood home in the 1960s, back when orchards of figs, peaches and almonds encircled his neighborhood. Before the area around the small community of Planada exploded with dairy farms, he trusted the water that came out of his faucets.
“Me and my friends would go out there. No odors, no smells,” Rodriguez, who is 71 and previously worked for Merced City schools, told Inside Climate News from his kitchen table. “I considered this a little piece of heaven before the dairies arrived.”
Families say local waterways are not a source of joy anymore, and blistering hot summer days can be hellish, as foul smells escape so steadily from local farms that people can’t open their windows to cool off.
Today, the Leadership Counsel for Justice & Accountability, an advocacy group, says families in the region are in years-long conflict with dairies, and each herd represents another battle front.
One is Hillcrest Dairy, a decades-old farm in Le Grand, next door to Planada, with around 8,000 cows located about a four-minute drive from Rodriguez’s home. The dairy has applied to expand its operations to about 1,700 more cows and at least half a dozen new buildings, including a 50,000 square-foot barn.
