Plan for dairy next to park prompts suits

The state and an environmental group filed lawsuits Thursday to block construction of a 12,000-cow dairy next to Allensworth State Historic Park, a remote patch of prairie where a former slave established an African American community nearly a century ago.

The suits against the Tulare County Board of Supervisors contend that the panel approved the dairy without properly considering the possible effect of odors, flies and water pollution on visitors to the park and on nearby homes.

The actions by state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown and the Natural Resources Defense Council were welcomed by supporters of Allensworth, who say that so many cows penned just a mile away would taint a site that is cherished as a bold early experiment in black self-reliance.

“We’re just trying to protect the park,” said Victor Carter, a Bakersfield accountant who heads a group called Friends of Allensworth. “These lawsuits are very encouraging.”

Over the last year, busloads of African Americans from Los Angeles and the Bay Area attended county hearings to protest the planned dairy.

Both suits claim that the Tulare supervisors violated the California Environmental Quality Act by relying on a shoddy analysis of the proposed dairy’s effects.

“By bringing a large industrial dairy operation into the immediate surroundings of the park, the dairy project threatens the park’s historic integrity and its function to convey a historically accurate picture of the way of life of the Allensworth pioneers,” the state’s suit claims.

David Albers, an attorney for the farmer planning the dairy, said his client was particularly upset by the attorney general’s action because he had been negotiating with state officials about a possible sale of his property to the state.

“It seems pretty unwise for the state -- which supposedly wants to buy the property -- to go ahead and sue,” said Albers, a dairy owner himself as well as a lawyer for Sam Etchegaray, the property’s owner.

Brown disagreed.

“These two things are perfectly compatible,” he said. “The governor and the Department of Parks and Recreation are very interested in getting development rights to the land, and that’s fine. But you can’t break the law. This kind of a use -- a mega-dairy next to a historic part of California -- has to be analyzed under state law, and it wasn’t.”

A Tulare County spokesman said Thursday that an attorney for the supervisors had not had time to evaluate the lawsuits.

Filed to meet a legal deadline, the suits landed one day after a legislative committee approved a bill banning dairies within 2 1/2 miles of the park.

The vote by the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee was seen by foes as an unfair slap at the authority of local governments.

Allensworth was founded in 1908 by a charismatic Army retiree. At its peak, about 300 families lived in the town 150 miles north of Los Angeles.

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steve.chawkins@latimes.com