The ranch's underground pipes, or tile drains, would prevent salt and nitrates from seeping into deeper groundwater. And, Boswell notes, a thick clay layer also guards against contamination. The Chamberlain Ranch is close to creameries, Boswell says, and the roads leading to them. And Boswell planned with painstaking precision. It had to.
More cows means more milk, manure and waste - tons of it.
Daily, a 1,400-pound Holstein offers up to nine gallons of milk, uses at least 100 gallons of water in drinking and washing, and passes about 100 pounds of waste. That math worries the Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment, the San Francisco-based law firm that sued Kings County on behalf of four Corcoran residents. That's an amount equivalent to a city 26 times the size of Hanford dumping its untreated waste on the ground. Comparisons vary, but one cow can yield as much waste as 20 people in a single day. Yes, cows weigh more, eat more, defecate and urinate more than people.