Julius Goldman's Egg City v. Air Pollution Control District

The Air Pollution Control District of Ventura County (APCD) issued an abatement order prohibiting Egg City from operating an underground fuel storage tank and a manure drying machine until permits had been obtained as required under APCD regulations established pursuant to Health and Safety Code section 42300 et seq. Egg City claimed to be exempt from the permit requirement under Health and Safety Code section 42310, subdivision (e), and sought a writ of mandate (Code Civ. Proc., § 1094.5), commanding APCD to set aside its abatement order. A peremptory writ was issued and APCD appeals.

Facts

Egg City is a large egg ranch covering about 300 acres in Ventura County, roughly 4 miles north of Moorpark. The facility houses over 3 million chickens which produce over 2 million eggs per day. The chickens also produce daily between 350 and 400 tons of manure. The manure is handled in 2 ways: about 90 percent is spread for drying over a 25-acre spreading ground and then sold as fertilizer to local farmers; the remaining 10 percent is trucked from the hen houses to the manure dryer.

The manure dryer, for which APCD sought to require a permit, is housed in a building on Egg City…