Two environmental groups are alleging that San Bernardino County officials violated federal anti-discrimination laws by approving a disproportionate number of warehouses and logistics centers in a majority Latino community.

The developments expose residents of Bloomington, an unincorporated community with deep equestrian traditions, to air pollution and contribute to housing instability and inequity, the nonprofit environmental law organization Earthjustice said on behalf of San Bernardino-based The People's Collective for Environmental Justice in a complaint filed with the federal government last week.

The complaint asks federal agencies to investigate the claims and meanwhile put warehouse development in Bloomington on hold.

A spokesperson for San Bernardino County declined to comment on the complaint.

Bloomington recently made headlines because a developer is demolishing 117 homes and ranches to build an industrial park. The community of 23,000 people is rapidly transforming as developers convert areas around the 10 Freeway into a logistics corridor connecting goods shipped into Southern California ports with online shoppers across the nation. Proponents of the developments say they bring jobs and major infrastructure improvements.

The complaint says that other unincorporated areas of San Bernardino County haven't experienced the same rapid industrialization, even though they have similar characteristics, including access to major freeways, flat topography and historically rural land uses.

Bloomington, which straddles the 10 Freeway, has 15 warehouses and five more that have been approved, according to Warehouse CITY, a tracking tool from Radical Research and the Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability at Pitzer College.

Mentone, about three miles from the 10, has three warehouses. The desert communities of Phelan and Piñon Hills, near State Route 138, and Oak Hills, near Interstate 15, have five among them.

Bloomington is nearly 90% Latino, and Mentone is 42% Latino. The Latino populations of the three desert communities range from 44% to 56%.

"In our analysis, it was clear that there was a systematic targeting of Bloomington for warehouse development in a way that wasn't occurring in other unincorporated parts of the county that have much fewer people of color, Latinos specifically," said Katrina Tomas, associate attorney for Earthjustice.

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