Dairymen say they are trying to spread the cost of sophisticated operations over bigger herds. That means California packs them in like no other state, even second-place Wisconsin. California's are more than six times that. Sheer numbers overwhelm the regulators hired to monitor them. Only recently have federal regulators zeroed in on dairies' potential to taint soil and water.
Counties generally monitor dairies, review proposals and field complaints.
But the primary environmental caretakers of dairies are state water quality officials. They police the nonbusiness end of cows to ensure that urine, manure and other waste don't pollute ground and surface water. Scattered over nine regions, those officials track the location and size of dairies along with the amount of waste generated and where it goes. They also have inspection duty but, as a practical matter, that rarely happens in most regions. Dairymen are on the honor system.