Firm Given OK to Put Dairies on Cotton Fields

HANFORD, Calif. — After more than a year of political and legal wrangling, J.G. Boswell Co. has won its bid to develop four massive dairies on old cotton farmland.

With Kings County Planning Commission permits in hand this week, the cotton giant can now find buyers--dairymen looking to relocate or expand their herds.

The project is expected to put as many as 47,700 cows on 6,000 acres halfway between Hanford and Corcoran.

Four of five commissioners voted in favor of the project after a brief meeting. Approval came after commissioners considered staff reports, reviewed hundreds of pages of environmental studies, and listened to public comments over two days last week.

Boswell won county permits in January 1999, but withdrew them to perform an environmental impact report when the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment sued Kings County. The San Francisco-based watchdog group demanded that the county and Boswell make a further study of how the dairies might affect water resources, air quality, and health concerns such as insects and odor.