Enrique Gutierrez/Sun Post - Survivor:A chicken rescued from a closed-down Olivera Foods plant in Gilroy roams free Wednesday, April 4, at Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary in Stockton. Olivera Foods wants to open an egg farm on the outskirts of Lathrop. Animal activists say large-scale operations often mistreat birds, while the developer of River Islands argues that flood danger and air quality have not been addressed.

LATHROP — While most people will give barely a thought to the source of their hard-boiled and festively painted treats this weekend, a proposed egg farm is creating a major headache for people in rural Lathrop.

San Jose-based egg producer Olivera Foods has applied for a permit with the San Joaquin County planning department to build a large poultry farm on a 130 acres of land at 4000 W. Undine Road, just outside Lathrop’s city limits. Plans call for five 28,000-square-foot buildings in which 900,000 chickens would lay eggs.

But neighbors fear some nasty side effects will come along with those 900,000 birds.

The 11,000-home River Islands development sits less than a quarter mile downwind from the proposed farm site. Developers are on the front line of the debate, voicing worries about odors, insect infestations and the plant’s effect on area home values.

Project director Susan Dell’Osso worries that the county has not required an in-depth environmental study of the project, especially since the proposed farm would sit on a flood plain unprotected by 100-year levees.

“To have a million-chicken facility without a thorough environmental review just seems like they’re short-circuiting the process, especially when there are major issues like flooding and air quality and odor,” Dell’Osso said.

The project has not yet gone before the Planning Commission. The planning department is awaiting responses from public health officials and other agencies, officials said.

Olivera Foods operates a similar plant at 944 Bowman Road in French Camp that houses about 700,000 chickens. That operation has prompted a number of complaints in recent years, said Laurie Cotulla, assistant director of the San Joaquin County Environmental Health Department.

Most recently, health officials responded in February to an odor complaint. They found improper disposal of manure, as well as conditions that breed mosquitoes and flies, among other violations.

If the Lathrop site is approved, Olivera Foods will close its French Camp location, according to its site approval application.

Also stepping forward to oppose the project are folks worried about inhumane conditions for birds in “factory farms.”

Karen Courtemanche, the director of the Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary about a mile from the proposed site, has seen the products of large-scale egg farms firsthand. Her sanctuary took in several chickens from a shuttered Olivera Foods farm in Gilroy after the plant closed two years ago.

The chickens lived in small wire cages that did not allow them enough room to spread their wings, she said. As is standard in the industry, the chickens’ beaks had been cut off to prevent the birds from pecking one another to death in such close quarters. They were missing clumps of feathers, and their claws had grown as long as four inches, she said.

Because the chickens lived in stacked, bottomless cages, they were also covered in excrement from the hens housed above them. Their eyes had been burned by ammonia in the air from a buildup of manure.

“It’s a horrific practice,” Courtemanche said. “It’s very disturbing to see.”

Later this month, the California state Assembly will consider a bill prohibiting cages in which hens can’t spread their wings. The bill would also regulate crate sizes for pigs and veal calves.

Owner Edward Olivera did not return phone calls. Management at the Bowman Road farm declined the Sun Post’s requests to photograph the exterior of buildings or tour the site.