Pubdate: Tue, 30 Jun 2015
Source: Press Democrat, The (Santa Rosa, CA)
Copyright: 2015 The Press Democrat
Contact:  http://www.pressdemocrat.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/348
Author: Guy Kovner

FISHERIES PANEL TO HOLD SACRAMENTO HEARING ON WATER USE BY POT FARMS

The devastating impact of drought and illegal marijuana cultivation 
on North Coast fisheries will be the focus of a state legislative 
committee hearing Wednesday in Sacramento, on the heels of reports 
that pot plants are consuming billions of gallons of water and 
salmon-rearing creeks are running dry.

John Laird, head of California's Natural Resources Agency, and Chuck 
Bonham, director of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, will 
lead off the daylong hearing by the Joint Committee on Fisheries and 
Aquaculture.

Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman and Hezekiah Allen, executive 
director of the Emerald Growers Association, an advocacy group for 
medical marijuana farmers and patients, also will address the 
eight-member committee.

State Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, the committee chairman, said 
the environmental impact of rogue marijuana gardens on the North 
Coast is "getting statewide attention" nearly 20 years after 
California voters were the first in the nation to approve of medical marijuana.

"We're playing catch-up for the last two decades of inaction," 
McGuire said. The medical marijuana industry has "exploded" in the 
absence of state regulation, he said.

"California's fisheries are in crisis," he said, with tens of 
thousands of acres under illegal pot cultivation amid a fourth year 
of drought. The Russian, Eel, Gualala, Mattole and Mad rivers are 
among the waterways impacted by pot's voracious thirst, he said.

Assemblyman Jim Wood, D-Healdsburg, is vice chairman of the joint 
committee, which has met since 1973.

More than 86,500 marijuana plants were seized last week during a 
four-day operation in the remote Island Mountain region where 
Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity counties meet. Officials said they 
found "egregious environment issues," including unlawful grading and 
creeks that had been dammed and diverted to provide water for the pot plants.

Allman estimated the plants seized were consuming about 500,000 
gallons of water a day.

The illegal marijuana plants confiscated in California by law 
enforcement in recent years - between 2 million and 4 million 
annually - use upward of 1.8 billion gallons, or about 600,000 water 
tanker trucks over their five-month growing season, according to a 
Department of Fish and Wildlife study.

That's enough water loss to stanch the seasonal flow of many small 
creeks in the region, potentially stranding the young salmon and 
steelhead trout that decades of taxpayer-funded efforts have sought to restore.

"Essentially, marijuana can consume all the water. Every bit of it," 
Scott Bauer, a Fish and Wildlife environmental scientist, said in April.

Last year, 24 North Coast salmon-bearing tributaries were reported to 
have gone dry, he said, though not all were verified by the agency. 
Commercial fishing generates $7 billion a year in revenue, while 
recreational fishing along the coast contributes an additional $2 
billion, McGuire said.

At the hearing, representatives of two fishermen's associations will 
discuss the drought's impact on fisheries, while Allman, Allen, a 
rancher from the California Cattlemen's Association and others will 
assess the impact of illegal pot cultivation.

Commenting on the Island Mountain pot raids, Allen last week 
acknowledged the environmental and public safety issues associated 
with unregulated cannabis cultivation. "Solving these problems will 
require a broad coalition of stakeholders, including some of the very 
farmers being targeted right now," he said.

McGuire has introduced the Medical Marijuana Public Safety and 
Environmental Protection Act, which would establish what he called 
"an all-encompassing regulatory framework" for the medical cannabis 
industry. The bill would require all licensed cannabis growers to 
comply with state water quality regulations, including permits for 
all irrigation and water discharge from marijuana grows.

The "lion's share" of growers are "eager to become legal" and comply 
with state regulations, he said.

McGuire's bill, SB 643, was approved by the Senate, 26-13, on June 4 
and is headed for Assembly committee hearings.

Wood is the author of another bill, the Marijuana Watershed 
Protection Act, that would require the state's nine regional water 
quality control boards to develop regulations on wastewater discharge 
from medical cannabis farms.

His bill, AB 243, was approved by the Assembly, 60-15, on June 3.

Wednesday's joint committee hearing, which begins at 10 a.m., will be 
carried live on the Senate's website, www.senate.ca.gov, under "Today's Events."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom