Pubdate: Wed, 31 Aug 2016
Source: Ukiah Daily Journal, The (CA)
Copyright: 2016 The Ukiah Daily Journal
Contact: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/feedback
Website: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/581

STATE WATER OFFICIALS IN UKIAH TO DISCUSS RESPONSIBLE MARIJUANA GROWING

State water officials will be in Ukiah today to explain their role in 
ensuring that marijuana is grown in an environmentally safe manner 
under the Medical Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act.

According to the State Water Resources Control Board, officials are 
developing a "regulatory program to protect California waters from 
harmful activities related to cannabis cultivation. The program will 
prohibit waste discharges from agricultural practices, land clearing 
and grading activities in rural areas and forests."

Along with staff from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife 
and the California Department of Food and Agriculture, water 
officials will discuss their efforts to "develop and adopt interim 
principles and guidelines to ensure that water diversion and 
discharge associated with commercial cannabis cultivation do not 
affect the instream flows needed for fish spawning, migration, and 
rearing, and the flows needed to maintain natural flow variability."

Activities of interest related to marijuana grows include:

Illegal or harmful diversions of water

Poorly constructed or maintained roads and the excavation or 
development of cultivation areas, which are a major source of 
sediment pollution from soil erosion.

Excavation of a wetland area or the removal of vegetation from a 
riparian corridor, since tree canopy provides crucial shading to 
maintain stream and river temperatures.

Potting soil and mulch, amendments, fertilizers, and pesticides 
stored improperly or improperly applied, which leads to the pollution 
of local waterways.

Leaving behind of household trash and human waste at large-scale 
growing sites, which contain hazardous waste and other contaminants.

Clear-cutting of areas to create open space for growing results in 
deforestation and increased erosion due to loss of vegetative cover.

The program also includes state officials issuing permits to "cover 
medical marijuana (Proposition 215) grown on private land. Cannabis 
cultivation on public lands is illegal and may be subject to criminal 
prosecution." Such a permit "does not approve or endorse cannabis cultivation."

The meeting in Ukiah begins today (Aug. 31) at 4 p.m. at the Ukiah 
Valley Conference Center at 200 S. School St. There will be time for 
attendees to ask questions of all of the agencies involved.

The next meeting will be held Thursday, Sept. 1, in Eureka, then 
Wednesday, Sept. 7, in Weed.

Last week, research partners New Frontier and Arcview Market Research 
released a "2016 California Legal Cannabis Market State Profile," 
which reportedly finds that the market for adult use of cannabis will 
nearly triple by 2020 if recreational use of the drug is legalized in 
California this November: from $2.8 billion in 2016 to an estimated 
$6.5 billion by 2020.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom